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Ms. Golden America Pageant Finds Success Featuring
Women over 50
Featured on ABC Good Morning America day of Florida
pageant
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Winners: Joyce O'Brien (center) -
Ms. Golden America; Jerry Kay (left) - 1st runner up; Lauren
Monahan (right) - 2nd runner up & Pageantry Magazine Spirit
Award Winner. |
Nov. 6, 2005 – Beauty pageants featuring older
women have never received much attention, but the first Mrs. Golden
America Pageant, featuring women fifty and older was featured on ABC’s
Good Morning America the day of the show – Saturday, October 29. It was
a big day for Kathleen LeSage, who came up with the idea for the
competition and acted as director. And, for two boomers and one senior.
The show went on in Fort Myers, Florida, just six
days after a destructive female named Wilma blew through the area. But
Wilma was not enough of a hurricane to stop this show, as 15 women ages
51 to 66 took the stage to the music of recording artist, David Patrick
Bryan and Jason and Nancy Weintraub of the Weintraub Duo.
They will still packed with energy from the morning
performance on ABC, where in unison they shouted, “Good Morning
America,” to the country and gave this new pageant for ladies over 50
national acclaim.
When it all came to conclusion the winners were two
baby boomers and one senior citizen:
Ms. Golden American - Joyce O'Brien, 55, of
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Along with the title she received a diamond
solitaire necklace and a one week vacation for two to New Life Hiking
Spa, in Killington, Vermont.
First Runner-Up - Jerri Kay, age 65, from
Las Vegas, Nevada.
Second Runner-Up - Lauren Monahan, 52, from
Knoxville, Tennessee. She was also the Pageantry Magazine Spirit Award
winner and was presented with the award by Rafi Perez from Pageantry
Magazine.
Director LeSage of Naples, who’s managed other
pageants and has a background in marketing, created the contest “because
there wasn’t a pageant for women 50 to 65” that focused on their
substantial accomplishments.”
LeSage says she received 752 applications from all
over the country. That group was winnowed down to 15 finalist based
essays and phone interviews.
Micki Shirar, age 60, the local contestant from
Fort Myers Beach, was selected to announce the pageant and location on
ABC. The television interview with Juju Chang via satellite from New
York was held with LeSage and contestants Elle Nash and O’Brien.
Nash, age 64, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida is the
owner of Fit Over Fifty and is a senior personal trainer. Ms. Nash is
also a former Miss Manhattan from the 60’s and spent most of her career
working on Capital Hill.
The charity chosen by Ms. Golden America, Inc. to
receive proceeds from the pageant is the National Stroke Association.
This donation will be made by the pageant in memory of the director's
mother, Nancy Cullins. She passed away from a stroke on April 4, 2002
at the age of 60.
One of the goals of the Ms. Golden America Pageant
is to educate women on risk factors and stroke prevention. Below you
will find information from the National Stroke Association website. For
more information, please go directly to their site at
www.stroke.org.
Ms. Golden America is already selecting contestants
for the 2006 pageant which will be held at the Harborside Event Center
in Fort Myers, Florida on November 4, 2006. Entry information is
available on
www.msgoldenamerica.com or by
calling 1-800-545-9407.
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The 15 Ms. Golden America finalists with
winners in the center. |
Local Contestant Who Helped in Wilma Featured in
News Report
A contestant featured in the local News-Press.com
by writer Karen Feldman featured Micki Shirar, a 60-year-old mother of
four, grandmother of seven and paralegal for the Collier County school
system.
A Pennsylvania transplant, Shirar lived in Naples
for 30 years, relocating to Fort Myers Beach last December. She and her
husband, a retired firefighter and paramedic, stayed in their Fort Myers
Beach condo throughout Hurricane Wilma to look after older, less mobile
neighbors.
“We felt responsible and we stayed,” Shirar says.
But she didn’t lose sight of the prize. As Wilma
approached and Shirar gathered her important items in case they had to
leave, “the first thing I put by the door was everything for the
pageant,” she says, including her gown, hermetically sealed in five
layers of plastic wrap.
She, her husband and their neighbors all emerged
from the experience unscathed, but “it was the most frightening thing
I’ve been through,” Shirar says.
She is not the perennial pageant candidate, not one
of those who found themselves competing before they could walk. This was
her first and co-workers urged her to enter. “Many women over 50 don’t
have the nerve to go out, don’t think they can achieve anymore,” Shirar
says. “I wanted to show women that no matter your age, you can always
try new things.”
“She’s a great example of that,” wrote Feldman. The
one-time nurse went back to school and changed careers after moving to
Florida. She was widowed when her youngest child was 10. At age 55, she
fell in love again and remarried. Shirar said she wasn’t nervous about
her 15 minutes of fame, especially considering the events of the past
week.
For Feldman’s complete story –
click here
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