Fort Walton Beach High School (FWBHS) is bringing back the ‘Miss Fort Walton Beach High’ pageant on Feb. 26-28. It’s been at least a decade since the Vikings have held this event, and this year, it’s all to help raise funds for the theatre department.
The pageant will kick-off on Wednesday with Talent Night, where each contestant will have three minutes to showcase their unique talent. On Thursday, each contestant will have an interview with the judges that will last approximately five minutes.
- Formal and finals night for the pageant will be held on Friday evening, where each contestant will walk on stage in their formal gown. The judges will then narrow it down the ‘Top 10’ contestants that will move on to the final portion of the competition, which will consist of answering an on-stage question to determine the winner.
Fifteen students from FWBHS will compete in this year’s pageant. To meet the requirement for participation, each contestant has to be a member of either a club or sports team at the high school.
The pageant is being organized and put on collaboratively by FWBHS’ theatre director, Ronald Morse and school nurse, Mindy Cleveland.
- Cleveland, who has been the school nurse for the past 5 years, has also held the title of Director of Miss Okaloosa County Pageants since 2019, which encompasses seven different pageants around the area.
The idea for the pageant came about when Cleveland and Morse were having a conversation about how to raise money for 13 students that have qualified for the State Thespian Competition, as well as raising money for all of the things that need to be done to improve the theatre department for the students.
“Going to state costs a lot of money,” said Cleveland, “And the way I know how to raise money is through pageants, so I offered to help him put it on.”
Since the announcement and leading up to the pageant, the student body has been excited and has even come up with creative ways to spur interest and get other students involved. In one instance, students had a photo booth set up during lunch with pageant-themed props.
- Students also came up with the idea to put QR codes on clothespins to pin on girls they thought would be interested in participating, which resulted in several signups.
“The students themselves are interested in it because not a lot of them have much experience with pageants,” added Cleveland. “They just hear ‘pageant’ and they think ‘oh, it’s just a beauty thing’, but it’s absolutely not. We don’t even have a beauty score.”
In order to raise funds to benefit the theatre department, each contestant was tasked with selling an ad to a local business which will be displayed in the programs being sold at the pageant, as well as the high school’s social media.
“I think that the girls are going to do a great job,” said Cleveland, “Pageants are a passion of mine, and theater is another passion of mine, so I’m very grateful that I’m able to help the theatre in this way. And to also see the girls shine on stage in maybe a way that they haven’t before.”
The overall ‘Queen’ will win the title of ‘Miss Fort Walton Beach High School’, as well as receive a $500 cash scholarship.
- Titles will also be given to the following: Miss Freshman, Miss Sophomore, Miss Junior, Miss Senior, Miss FWBHS People’s Choice, Miss Congeniality, Miss Talent, Miss Formal and Miss Interview.
“It’s just wonderful that we’re bringing something back that used to be such a big tradition here at the Fort,” added Cleveland. “I’m excited to see how it all turns out and hopefully we’re able to do this every year.”
Tickets for Friday are $10. Those interested in purchasing tickets to attend the pageant and support their efforts may do so by visiting https://gofan.co.
Proceeds from this pageant will benefit the high school’s theatre department as a whole, as well as benefiting the students who qualified for the State Thespian Competition.
