2008 Miss DC Pageant

I attended the Miss DC pageant on Saturday night at the historic Lincoln Theater. A great time was had by all, and the attendance at this year's pageant definitely dwarfed last year's. The winners (for those of you who didn't attend the pageant) were Kate Marie Grinold (yes, another Kate) in the Miss portion and Jasmine Alexis in the Teen portion. Jasmine also won the teen portion of last year's 2007 Miss DC USA pageant. Congratulations to Kate and Jasmine on their wins!

Lynn Keegan of HGTV's Design To Sell was the main host of the pageant, but he got help from several other former Miss DC's including 1997 Miss DC Sonya Gavankar, 2004 Miss DC Therese Lizardo, 2005 Miss DC Shannon Schambeau-Patterson, and my friend 2006 Miss DC, Kate Michael.



Before, during and after the pageant, I spent some time with several friends and acquaintances I had previously met at last year's pageant and also at last year's 2007 Miss DC USA pageant. I spent some time during the intermission with Kate Michael who did a very nice rundown of the pageant on her K Street Kate blog. I also got to talk to "Sabbatical Sonya" a bit during the intermission about her blog - I had to confess I hadn't read it in a while due to my own busyness - but Sonya, I'm now playing catch up! I also spent some time with the 2007 DC National Sweetheart representative Michelle Crosby before and after the pageant. I had previously met Michelle last year at the 2007 Miss DC USA pageant. After the pageant I ran into the 2007 Miss Teen D.C., LaTonya "L.A." Abrams who I first met last year at the 2007 Miss DC day at the Nationals.


I also spent a good deal of time after the pageant with two of the people behind the scenes at the Miss District of Columbia organization who do some remarkable work in organizing the pageant each year and who make sure everything flows smoothly. Teri Galvez, the executive director of the Miss DC board and 1988 Miss DC, Tricia Morrin-Lloyd who is the President of the Miss DC organization's board. Both Teri and Tricia are tireless in their efforts to help promote the pageant and to help it create women that are truly great representatives of the district. I definitely enjoyed my time there and having the chance to talk to some of the most outstanding women in the Washington DC community!

One last shot here, post pageant... Miss DC runner-up Jennifer Corey as she leaves the Lincoln Theatre. Didn't she look absolutely STUNNING in her dress???!!! I was really thinking she was going to win, but she lost what had to be an extremely close race with Kate as the two of them pretty much swept the individual awards, and even tied for two of them! I do think though that 2009 just might be her year!

-----