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I walked on the stage at my first pageant at age 20 as a college junior
seeking the extra money I needed to pay my tuition increase that year.

I didn't win. I found out later I'd been dubbed the 'Stork.'

I had no idea there were such things as 'Supersuits'- I wore a blue
Jantzen swimsuit right off the rack. My mother made my talent costume to
match the theme of the gyspy solo I was to perform on my violin. My
evening gown wasn't anything special. Being a small town girl in the
rural northeast, we'd never HEARD of those big name designers, nor
could we afford their gorgeous frocks. I was playing division 1 field
hockey on a college scholarship and the only coaches I knew were on the
playing field- not in the pageant world. The competitive side of me that
flourished on the field was piqued by my pageant loss. I reentered that
local pageant the next year.

I won. In fact, I won $5000 with that local title. Fast forward three years,
and the Miss Pennsylvania America crown was placed on my head. The
local paper's headline read "Farm Girl Makes it Big." I went to the Miss
America Pageant, still with no official 'coaches' and without the mega
gown, but with a sense of pride, individuality, a strong support system of
friends and family, and that same competitive spirit. At the end, I was in
awe to stand on the same stage as the fabled crown was placed on the
head of Heather Whitestone- a woman I can now call a friend.

At the end of it all, I walked away with $30000 in scholarships which
would pay for my graduate degree; enough business cards from
networking to stuff a Hefty trash bag; a new sense of what it meant to
embrace being intelligent, talented and attractive (to some, at least!) and a
legacy of having "A Brain Under the Crown" as another headline declared
upon giving up my title. I'd also won national community service awards
and personally registered over 5000 Pennsylvanians to vote. Having
traveled 60000 miles and visited all 67 counties and spoken to crowds as
large as 25000 during my year of service~ I'd realized my gift.

I had a voice and I'd learned how to use it. And people would listen! Ten
years passed as I focused on honing that voice, channeling my passion
for serving others and encouraging people to achieve their potential no
matter what the naysayers said. I received my first college teaching
job-and I heard the echoes of those who had said, 'she's a pageant girl,
she'll never be a professor', as if pageantry = stupidity.

Exactly one decade to the day that I was crowned Miss PA America, I
reentered pageant competition, only this time with a husband and baby!
On that night ten years later, as I stood onstage in my wedding dress, my
name was called as Mrs PA United States! I went on to finish 3rd runner
up at Mrs United States and again the competitive spark ignited my
passion. I followed by entering the National Mrs Pageant and placed 1st
runner up. I was blessed to share the stage with my friend, the inspiring
Cheryl Huizinga, as she claimed the inaugural crown. The next year, I
was off to Texas and again shared the stage as my good friend, the lovely
& worthy Donna Brown, captured that title.

And finally, in this journey to encourage, inspire, motivate and prove to
others that pageantry has positive, powerful, life-changing possibilities- I
had planned my proud return to the National Mrs Pageant stage in
September of this year- only to recently receive the news the pageant was
no more. Because I believe that a title is only as good as the folks behind
it, I've made the commitment to join the American Dream pageant
program. I've had to vigorously push up my 'competition date' by 3
months... but I've never worked harder, nor with more passion than I
have right now to not only earn and promote a national title, but also to
share my story.

Dreams do come true- and mine did in New Orleans when I captured the
national title of Mrs American Dream this past June. Won't you consider
joining me next year to compete for the title of YOUR dreams? For more
information, visit americandreampageants.com.