Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington

The pageant night activities for the Miss Monroe County Scholarship Pageant don’t end when the queen is crowned (which happened about 9:30 p.m. tonight – Saturday – at Monroe County Community College). It has become a tradition in recent years to end the night with an afterglow social event at the Welch Health Education Building at MCCC in which Miss Monroe County makes her first formal appearance and all of her court is introduced.

Some of the contestants changed into cocktail dresses for this event, others stayed in their evening gowns that were their attire for the second act of the production.

During the social event, little girls walked around with program books, asking the Miss Monroe County contestants “Can I have your autograph?” Miss Monroe County 2007 Rachel McCleery posed for more photographs, in addition to the dozens of snapshots that were taken onstage at the La-Z-Boy Center. The contestants had a dance with their escorts, and several special awards were announced.

The menu had the theme of “A Taste of Monroe,” with local restaurants and caterers providing cake, pop, pizza, fresh fruit, wings and meatballs. On one table, there were cookies that were shaped like crowns and stars – very cute!

By Paula Wethington

It was intermission time Saturday night at the Miss Monroe County Scholarship Pageant. The contestants had already performed their swimsuit and talent pieces, and interviews with the judges had taken place earlier in the day. The contestants were in the dressing room, putting on evening gowns and touching up makeup for the second act.

And one of the girls said to no one in particular, “It’s almost over. It’s weird. I spent all summer preparing for this, and it’s almost over.”

Do you ever get to that point where your brain is just full and it’s kind of like that giant bingo drum where the ping pong balls are turned over and over and you’re trying to pull out a B12 but it’s just not working because you keep coming up with O64 or some such?

Yeah, well, the last week has been a little like that.

In between the fair, the bridge collapse in my old city, Minneapolis, and the truly interesting things going on in the community, the news business has been bustling. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining. I love being in the thick of it. It’s just been a little jumbly.

I wanted to post an update of things to come:

* I got a copy of the city pension board expense reports for NCPERS, aka the Hawaii Conference, and hope to post the totals spent later today.
* A story on county and city expenses at that conference will be forthcoming.
* A deeper look at the issue between the Monroe Center and the Commission on Aging.
* A local guy in the Coast Guard, stationed in Alaska, recently helped search for Japanese soldier remains from WWII on a small island.
Let me know if there are any stories you would like to see in the paper or online.

By Paula Wethington

The Monroe Evening News participates in several promotional events throughout the year, including the Monroe County Fair. I usually volunteer to staff the booth at one or two of those events each year.
Well, I have to say that I’ve never seen a promotional give-a-way so popular as the lime green MonroeTalks backpack-style bags that our company is handing out at this year’s fair!

When Mike Fuson and I took over the booth at 6 p.m. Thursday, the outgoing crew told us that the bags were very popular but they saved some for our shift. Mike and I decided to keep our boxes behind the counter, and hand bags out on request.

Despite the “on request” distribution, in just under two hours, Mike and I run out of a supply of bags that was intended to last four hours. Several people said they’d stopped by repeatedly throughout the week, and kept missing out on a bag. Some of them finally got a bag, others came to the booth after we ran out.

Here’s a picture of me holding one of those elusive bags at our company’s booth. No, I didn’t take one home. That bag went to a fair visitor a few minutes later.