2005 marks for the first year for a new Miss Florida Teen USA Preliminary, Miss Citrus Teen USA. The dates are February 5 and 6, 2005 at the Hotel Orlando North in Maitland, FL. It will be held in conjunction with the Little Miss and Mister Citrus Pageant, celebrating the pageant's 9th
anniversary this year!

It is not too late to sign up for this official preliminary. Please call Citrus Productions at 407-896-5787 or e-mail director@missvermontusa.com to hold a spot! The program promises to have a
different feel as 200 little girls and boys will also be competing on the same stage for 10 national titles awarded the same weekend. Check out the site at www.littlemisscitrus.com http://www.littlemisscitrus.com/ We hope to see many Miss Florida USA and Teen USA faces in attendance!

» Miss Gainesville USA Postponement Update

Due to logistics issues this weekends Miss Gainesville USA Pageant was postponed until April 23^rd and will be moved to Jacksonville as part of a dual title competition at the University of North Florida. The Gainesville and the Jacksonville titles will be doled out during this competition, which means you'll get TWO crown opportunities for the price of one! Those who were registered will be offered to option to compete in the Jacksonville/Gainesville pageant in April OR you may come to Panama City March 18-20 for the Emerald Coast competition to be broadcast LIVE in North Florida.

» Emerald Coast Orientation Feb. 12, 2005!
The Miss Emerald Coast USA 2005 orientation session will be held Feb. 12, 2005, at the beautiful Legacy by the Sea Resort, the official hotel of Miss Emerald Coast USA & Miss Emerald Coast Teen USA. The Legacy is located at 15405 Front Beach Road on Panama City Beach, and our orientation will take place from 2:30-5:30 PM in the conference room. Activities for the day include swimsuit fittings, photo shoots and pre-taping segments for the March 20 television show. If you plan to attend orientation, please RSVP to amanda@leadingladymagazine.com. See you there! Final registration deadline for Miss Emerald Coast USA is March 5. For more information, check out www.MissEmeraldCoastUSA.com or call 850-321-3688.

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STATE PAGEANT ELIGIBILITY STATS

Miss Florida USA 2006

Delegates Entered: 14

Delegates Eligible: 52

Miss Florida Teen USA

Delegates Entered: 13

Delegates Eligible: 34

Every week more delegates become eligible to compete at state.

The season started with qualifiers from the past year. All of each pageants top15 qualify

along with Miss Amity & Miss Photogenic. Each preliminary pageant qualifies delegates

as “at large” status with their finalist, amity, photogenic and peoples choice awards.

Next Pageant Weekend: February 5th – Miss Gainesville USA & February 6^th Miss Citrus Teen USA!

THE ROAD TO MISS USA

A First Hand Look At Miss USA

By Mary Delach Leonard

OSAGE BEACH, Mo.

Miss USA tilted her chin and smiled prettily for this camera and that one and even those she didn't realize were eyeing her - those cell phones with digital cameras that casual observers used to sneak a quick shot. Shandi Finnessey, the blonde 26-year-old charmer from Florissant who won the national title last April, was all smiles as she arrived at the Missouri Jaycees convention at Tan-Tar-A resort at Lake of the Ozarks. This Friday night mixer was a casual but lively jeans-and-T-shirt affair, quite the extreme from the formal banquet these same folks would be attending the next night, all gussied up in their tuxedos and evening gowns, where Finnessey would be among five honorees to receive the organization's annual Outstanding Young Missourians award.

But that's the way her job is, Finnessey explained as she waded into the boisterous meet-and-greet. On this cold January night she would be rubbing elbows with regular folks from her home state, while next week she would be off to Washington to mingle with the political swank-and-file at an inaugural ball. No matter the occasion, Finnessey must be prepared for curious eyes and busy cameras, and this fact of life: What she does today might make the People column tomorrow. "People are always watching," she said. "The only time you can let your hair down is when you're in your own apartment." And that can mean some quick thinking, as when fun-loving conventioneers offered her one of their glowing green buttons that warned, "I Glow When I Get Horny." Finnessey took the button but on one condition: It couldn't be glowing.

Finnessey stands out in a crowd, even without her sparkling Miss USA sash, which she had left in the hotel room. Add several boot-heeled inches to her 5-foot-11-inch frame, and she cuts a tall profile, her perfect smile and long, sunny hair a magnet for attention. "Is that Miss America?" asked more than one onlooker. Finnessey gets that a lot, and she clicked off the differences between the two pageants, including the fact that Miss USA goes on to compete at Miss Universe, while Miss America is the top title in that system. And she shared some pageant humor: "Miss America is the girl next door, while Miss USA is the girl you'd like to live next door."

In other words, The Miss USA pageant - which is jointly owned by billionaire businessman Donald Trump and NBC - adds spice to the nice. Just look at the pictures of Finnessey taken the night she won, all leggy and glamorous in an evening gown she helped design, with its see-through bodice kept honest by carefully arranged sequins and its flowing skirt that was slit clear from the boot heel to Jefferson City.

But on this night, dressed in jeans and a USA athletic jacket, the pony-tailed Finnessey looked more like "the girl next door." "She was really sweet. Our chapter just loved having her around," said Kelly Crutchfield, the chairman of the board of the Florissant Jaycees, which nominated Finnessey for her award. "She had no special demands. She was very hospitable and down-to-earth."

And about that glamour thing: Miss USA usually flies coach and carries her own bags.

"A hottie and a smarty"
Depending on your viewpoint, Miss USA represents either the best or worst of society. To some, the titleholder epitomizes an American dream, a hard-working achiever chosen to represent her nation who is, granted, above-average in the looks department. To others, she is the superficial beauty queen, a throwback to the Dark Ages of sexism and chauvinism.

Just look at the stir caused by state Sen. Jon Dolan, R-Lake Saint Louis, who thought it would be nice to honor Finnessey with state highway signs on the Poplar, Jefferson Barracks and Interstate 270 bridges. "She's a hottie, and she's a smarty," Dolan told the Post-Dispatch. Although Dolan was taken to task by some readers for his "sexist" comments, others thought the newspaper was out of line for making it an issue.

Now nine months into her one-year stint, this Miss USA seems comfortable with who she is and what she represents. "There is still such a stereotype - 'Oh, so you're a beauty and no brains,' " Finnessey said. "I actually look forward to the challenge of proving myself. We don't want to be viewed as beauty queens." Finnessey earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Lindenwood University in 1999 and has written a self-published children's book called "The Furrtails," which tackles a favorite topic of Finnessey's: inclusiveness. An undergraduate paper she wrote on androgny was published in an academic journal. Her study showed that the more feminine in appearance a woman is, the more likely she is to receive assistance.

She said the idea for the study came from an awkward time in her own life, when she wore braces, had acne and her hair was cut in a mullet. Finnessey, who is Lutheran, graduated from Incarnate Word Academy, a Roman Catholic high school in St. Louis. She said she transferred to the school for her junior year partly because she thought she would be more challenged academically at an all-girl school and partly because she was going through that aforementioned awkward stage.

Maria Allen-Koerner, who teaches art at Incarnate Word, remembers Finnessey as a regular girl, very normal. "Amazingly, I would never have thought she would have been in a beauty pageant," she said. Finnessey, who took gymnastics and dance lessons as a child and modeled locally for the Talent Plus Agency, entered her first pageant at age 17. After several attempts, she won the title of Miss Missouri 2002 in the Miss America system and then Miss Missouri 2004 in the Miss USA system.

She said she didn't get serious about competing until she was 23 - when she made it to the Miss America pageant - and saw the opportunities and contacts that a national title offered. She sees Miss USA as a steppingstone to a world beyond Florissant. Finnessey will tell you she wasn't the prettiest girl on the stage at Miss USA, but she was determined, relaxed - and prepared.
"I had been to the Miss America pageant, and I had been left standing on the stage when they called the Top 15," she said.

For four months, she had maintained a rigorous workout routine - four hours a day at Club Fitness on Lindbergh Boulevard in Florissant. And she stuck to a high-protein, low-carb diet revolving around six chicken breasts a day. "I had no social life during this time," she said, laughing. "Chicken was my boyfriend." She also did yoga and meditated. "I imagined myself in each step of the competition," she said. As she told this story, Finnessey sat cross-legged on her hotel bed, eating a McDonald's Happy Meal: cheeseburger, fries and a Dr Pepper. "I've downsized," she said.

No more supersized Extra Value Meals. And she no longer has time for four-hour workouts, but she still wears the same dress size - between a 2 and a 4 - as she did for the pageant. "Because of my metabolism, I've stayed the same size, but I am not as toned," she said. Along with the $40,000 salary she pulls in as Miss USA come intangible perks. "You're not going to become rich on this job, and you're not going to leap into fame, but the title itself is priceless," she said. "You go anywhere and you go as Miss USA, and they know you are committed, that you've worked hard for something and that you also give back. It takes away barriers and opens doors."

The toughest part of the job is that her time is not her own, Finnessey said. Pageant officials arrange her schedule and tell her when and where to report. She accepts the long hours on the road and media scrutiny as part of the deal. "A job like mine is something I chose," Finnessey said. "I can't complain about being in the spotlight."

Next week look for part two of Shandi’s hometown interview, only at www.MissFloridaUSA.com.

“I just wanted to meet Miss USA,” said an excited Mindy Primm of St. Charles, who posed for a quick photo with Miss USA Shandi Finnessey, 26, of Florissant, during a Missouri Jaycees convention recently

at Tan-Tar-A resort in Lake of the Ozarks.
(Laurie Skrivan/P-D)