Jessica Lynch, Miss New York State, 2003 Competes for Miss America, 2004 Title

Homecoming Party to Celebrate her Victory, Saturday, July 26, 2003, at the Native Aliens Flatiron Playhouse, 119 West 23rd Street, New York, NY
Before speaking about Miss Jessica Lynch's victory, I would like to speak a bit about the Miss America Organization, the parent organization to the Miss New York State organization--the title Miss Lynch had secured.

The Miss America Organization is a not-for-profit organization. The purpose of the Miss America Organization, which it has traditionally maintained for decades, is to empower the women of America to achieve their goals, both professional and personal. The Miss America Organization also provides a forum for American women which serves as a vehicle which allows American women to express themselves in terms of talent, opinion and intelligence.

If you want to earn a college agree, but were financially barred from achieving one, You want to earn a college degree, but it's going to take a lot of money. Maybe you have to foot the bill yourself, or maybe you want to ease your parents' financial burden. Perhaps you're a leader who takes pride in paying your own way. The Miss America Organization is the leading provider of scholarships for young women in the world. Each year, more than $40 million in cash and tuition scholarship assistance is made available to the young women who compete in the system. This assistance is not just for the handful of young women who become Miss America, but is available to the over 12,000 young women who compete in the state and local competitions as well. Scholarships have been the cornerstone of the Miss America program since 1920 when Bess Myerson was the first Miss America to receive a scholarship from the Organization.

In addition to helping you prepare for college, the Miss America system allows you to gain a more life life experience by working on important societal issues, thus enhancing your personal and professional skills and developing your performance-related and other talents. A perfect example is Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, a young woman from the small town of Monroe, Michigan, entered a Miss America local competition to earn scholarship money to pay her nursing school bills. To her surprise, she captured not only a local and state title, but was ultimately named Miss America 1988. Kaye Lani used the scholarship money she earned as Miss America to pursue an advanced degree and fulfill her dream of opening a hospice for the terminally ill in her hometown.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Ed Thompson, the Field Director for the local competition of Southern New York, which includes the Miss Five Boroughs, Miss Manhattan and Miss Staten Island pageants. Mr. Thompson oversees any and all events where the pageant winner is present. Among some of the things he told me was that Miss Staten Island is a very strong pageant, as it is solidly backed by the community, because the Miss Staten contestant must be either a resident, employee or full-time student in Staten Island. This makes the community more interested in supporting the cause. Mr. Thompson also informed me that, while his role as Field Director does not permit him to be a judge of any of the competitions which he oversees as Field Director, he is, however, allowed to serve as a judge in pageant competitions outside of his jurisdiction.

I also had the pleasure of interviewing Miss Jessica Lynch, Miss New York State, 2003. Miss Lynch has been competing in pageantry since 1997, when she was nine years old. She's never modeled, and got involved in pageantry because she wanted to display her talent, and was also interested in receiving the accompanying scholarship for her education. Miss Lynch has won second runner up in the Miss Virginia in 1999, and was the first runner up in the Miss New York State for 2002. The next item on her agenda is Miss America, 2004. Miss Lynch is from Manhattan, where she has lived all of her life. Her educational background and career goals for the future consists of a degree from the University of Virginia. Miss Lynch is also interested in going back to school for either journalism or law school. When I asked Miss Lynch what advice she would give to the young women competing in pageantry, she first suggested to "be yourself", and "know who you are", so that "you can defend yourself when someone attacks you."

Miss Lynch's platform is one of fighting clinical depression in society. She chose this platform because of her own history of mental illness, for which she is still using medication. Miss Lynch is the perfect example of overcoming an individual overcoming a disability to achieve her goals.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Kimberly Ferdinando, Miss Metropolis, and Laura Lawless, former Miss Arizona.

In closing, I would like to remind you to be sure to watch the sixtieth annual Miss America competition, live from Atlantic City, on September 20, 2003 on ABC. Check your local listing for showtime. For more information about the Miss America Organization, log onto their website for advertising, sponsoring or being one of the contestants in the Miss America pageant, at www.missamerica.org.

Betty Coker, Chairwoman of the H.A.D. Organization of N.Y.C., Inc & Senior Editor of the Liberty News Online, will write articles about modeling, fashion design, fashion events, and how she co-founded the World's Largest Community Fashion & Modeling Organization.

If any of you models, designers, festival promoters, or fashion show promoters are interested in having an article written about you in this section, please feel free to contact us using any of the information below. If you are interested in modeling with us, or interested in a free presentation (no experience necessary--we are presently looking for models, for our New York Mega Show 2003, ranging in age from 3 to 60--including male, female, and child models, all sizes, heights and ethnicities welcome), please feel free to visit my website.

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