Miss Arkansas Pageant moves to Little Rock

ARKANSAS

DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

The Miss Arkansas Scholarship Pageant, held in Hot Springs for the past 58 years, will be in Little Rock for the next five.

The pageant will be held at Robinson Center, which is under renovation that is expected to be completed in November.

Gretchen Hall, president and CEO of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, said Miss Arkansas officials asked for bid requests for five years.

“It’s a beautiful setting for a pageant,” Hall said, “suited for all of the pageant attendees and participants, a beautiful, brand-new performance center in the capital city. We’re pleased they’re making a move.”

The Miss Arkansas Scholarship Pageant determines the state’s representative in the Miss America Competition, the national pageant held annually in Atlantic City, N.J.

The Miss Arkansas pageant has yet to sign a contract with Robinson Center, Hall said, but to her knowledge the dates for the 2017 pageant will be June 12-17.

Dates — specifically dates that didn’t align — presented a problem for the Miss Arkansas pageant, which crowned its latest winner July 9.

The Miss America Competition had a mandatory meeting for state pageant winners in Washington, D.C., the week after the Fourth of July. Savvy Shields, this year’s Miss Arkansas winner, was crowned about 11 p.m. on a Saturday. By 6 a.m., Shields was on a private plane headed for Washington, Kelly Bales, president of the pageant board of directors, said Wednesday.

Those few hours were hectic, Bales said, what with packing and filling out the numerous forms required by the Miss America Competition.

Shields also missed out on traditional local appearances such as a news conference Sunday in Hot Springs and visits to Little Rock television stations during the week.

This year’s mandatory meeting in Washington was the first, Bales said, but it will occur from now on, so a change in dates was necessary.

Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, said the city’s convention center didn’t have open dates in June to accommodate the pageant because other events have already been booked.

The convention center made a bid, Arrison said, but without the dates the pageant wanted, “it was a long shot.”

“We hate to see them leave,” Arrison said. “It was a great relationship for 58 years, good for both our organizations. As far as economic impact, we don’t anticipate any. We hate to see it go, but we understand. It’s about the dates. We don’t have the space.”

“I’m excited for Little Rock,” Arrison said. “We hope at some point they [the pageant] think about returning to Hot Springs.”

The pageant also solicited bids from Conway and North Little Rock, Bales said.

Jessie Bennett of White Hall, executive director of the state pageant and Miss Arkansas 2001, said the decision was to some degree emotional for her.

“I won in Hot Springs and I’ve been executive director for eight years,” she said. “I’m not a resident but appreciate all they have done for us. It’s also a business decision on how best to prepare Miss Arkansas for the Miss America pageant. In full context you have to consider both.”

“We’re excited about the potential in Little Rock,” Bennett said, “and their enthusiasm for the program.”

Hall said details to be finalized include room blocks at three downtown hotels and rental for space at Robinson.

“We’re offering some discounted rental for the space,” she said. “They will have some expense for production, ticket takers, ushers and security. It depends on what their needs are.”

Hall anticipated a sellout — 2,200 seats — for the pageant’s final night.

For Bales, the change in cities is emotional. Her stepfather, Bob Wheeler, was pageant director for 35 to 40 years, she said. Wheeler died in 2009. Bales was pageant director, she said, for a few years when Wheeler was in declining health.

She’s a native of Hot Springs and still lives there.

“My dad was a staunch Hot Springs native, longtime supporter of the pageant and head of it,” she said. “Yes, this is extremely difficult on a personal level for me.

“I do know he would want us to carry forward and do what was best for the organization and the young lady who holds the title. He always put her No. 1.

“When all this came about, I kept that in the forefront, that we were doing this for the right reasons.”

Competitors in this year’s Miss America Competition were in Atlantic City on Tuesday for the welcoming ceremony. Preliminary competitions are Sept. 7-8 with the final night Sept. 11.

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