Pageant News Bureau - National Sweetheart 2004, Page 1

P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u

It's your moment, sweetheart

Photos by Joe Whiteko / PNB

Monica Pang of Georgia

It's a long way from January to September, or so people say. But sometimes it's a long way from one end of September to another.

The ninth month is pageant month, or at least that's what people think in the non-pageant world. There's a certain show that goes in on Atlantic City in the middle of September, and it's the only beauty contest the "squares" have ever heard of. (The organizers say it's not a beauty contest at all, and they're right, but the myth is powerful.)

But forget all that for a moment. Earlier in the month, when the summer is wearing thin but fall is still just a forecast, there's a wonderful pageant spectacle in farm country. In Hoopeston, Illinois -- where sweetcorn is king, and where the fruit is on trees instead of on slot machines -- folks host a nostalgic competition called National Sweetheart.

Runners-up from Miss America state preliminaries compete against one another.

At left, Monica Pang of Georgia.

Shannon Schambeau of Florida

Anne Cruse of Kentucky

Georgine DeMaria of New Jersey

It's all informal, unofficial, and so American. Runners-up from Miss America state preliminaries compete against one another. Not for wealth or universal acclaim, not for much except honor. And maybe it's something in the corn, but they all look so wholesomely ravishing, like the farmer's daughter.

In 2004, the winner was none other than the "Asian belle," Monica Pang of Georgia. She's the second Georgian in a row to win the title, and she's a beauty, the kind of girl the the freckle-faced lads around the drugstore used to call a "real doll baby."

So return with us to that moment in early September and let's celebrate together. Because later in the month, the storms arrived.

Bridget Bobel of Indiana

Elise Horner of California

Abigail Gandin of Vermont

Georgine DiMaria of New Jersey and Jocey Kindrick of Missouri

Kristin Gauvin of Massachusetts

Monica Pang of Georgia.

P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u