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Beautiful women, beautiful memories 
- The Class of '94

By Kerri Thoreson
Special to PNB

First three photos by Benjamin Gibbs / PNB, final two courtesy of Kerri Thoreson

Each year, thousands of teenage girls vie for the opportunity to be part of the Miss Teen USA Pageant. Only 51 actually realize that dream, so it's a very unique sorority that creates lasting bonds.

It seemed only natural for the girls in the 1994 pageant to keep in touch and eventually plan to reunite after five years. The culmination of months of planning was meeting again as young adults with the backdrop of the 1999 Miss Teen USA Pageant in Shreveport, Louisiana, in August.

For those able to attend, it was a whirlwind of catching up, personal appearances, autograph signing and cheering on this year's delegates. With an official program book and commemorative T-shirts, the girls enjoyed their celebrity status by appearing on several local radio programs, giving newspaper interviews and doing a live remote at Downtown Neon Saturday Night.

Organizer Sarah Polk (Idaho) considered the effort a success. More than half the members of the "Class of 1994" were located. In hindsight, she thinks a 10-year reunion will be even better. "At this point in time, so many of our classmates were newly graduated from college and starting new jobs. It made it hard for quite a few to attend," she observed.

Besides seeing old friends like Nicole Bigham (Pennsylvania), her roommate at the 1994 pageant, Ms. Polk said the best part was being in touch with so many of the girls and now having an e-mail base of nearly 20 alumnae who plan to connect on a regular basis.

She plans to keep the online contact address (TUSA94@webtv.net) active indefinitely for the purpose of locating the remainder of the class, and getting a head start on a 10-year reunion in 2004.

These former teens from big cities and small towns all over the country spent two weeks in rehearsals for a live television production, interviewed with celebrity judges and appeared on a network broadcast with a viewing audience of nearly 50 million people. Ironically, none of that is as memorable as the friendships made and kept from that summer of 1994 in Biloxi, Mississippi.

(Kerri Thoreson is a journalist, businesswoman and unabashedly proud pageant mom in the northwestern United States. She recently signed on as a columnist at the Spokesman Review, a daily newspaper in Spokane, Wash.)

What they're up to

While Teen USA's Class of 1994 has some extremely high-profile members, including Miss USA Kimberly Pressler, Miss World USA Shauna Gambill, actress Keri Lyn Pratt, Playboy centerfold Jodi Paterson and Miss Tennessee America Allison Alderson, most of the former delegates have achieved a variety of successes in the five years since they represented their states at Miss Teen USA

Heather Henderson (Utah) is a Realtor and model who is married to one of the offspring of the Osmonds, one of America's great entertainment families. She became a mother this year.

Mary Elizabeth Stevenson (S.C.) earned a degree in Interior Design and is living in Atlanta. (See her Top 6 interview from 1994 to know that she achieved her goal.)

Tiffany Meyer (Missouri) is a registered nurse at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. In September 1999, she was crowned Miss Kansas USA.

Emily Huff (Hawaii) will graduate from the University of Nevada in December with an Elementary Education degree.

Desiree Gravelle (Montana) is a disc jockey in South Dakota.

Melissa Hurtig (Kansas) holds a Business Administration degree and recently moved with her husband to New York, where she serves as a management consultant for Ernst and Young.

Nicole Coletti (Rhode Island) works as a media buyer for an advertising agency after earning a communications degree from the University of Rhode Island.

Elizabeth Schmitz (Nebraska) is working toward a Doctorate of Pharmacy.

Whitney Fuller (Georgia) is a Clemson University graduate and is employed by the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice in Atlanta.

Sarah Lowther (Louisiana) has a psychology degree from Louisana State University and is working on a dual Master's degree from the University of Alabama.

Nicole Bigham (Pennsylvania) holds a theater and communications degree and is a working model.

Sarah Elizabeth Polk (Idaho) is an aspiring actress with a radio and television broadcasting degree. She's one of the few female stock car race announcers in the country.

Michelle Neves (Massachusetts) has interned at CNN in Los Angeles while earning a mass communications degree from Emerson College.

Jonelle Spiker (West Virginia) has an auctioneer's license and is employed by Myan Pharmaceuticals.

Angie Carpenter (Mississippi) is Miss Mississippi USA 2000 and has a degree in exercise science.

Paige Swenson (Minnesota) has a broadcast journalism degree and is currently employed as an account executive.

Whitney Ahlstrom (Wyoming) is completing undergraduate studies in science education at the University of Wyoming.

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