Miss IU contestants gearing up

Participants in the 2008 Miss IU-Bloomington Scholarship Pageant will compete Sunday for the opportunity to win scholarship money, the title of Miss IU and the chance to compete in the Miss Indiana pageant in June.\nThe event will begin at 3 p.m. in the Willkie Auditorium and tickets for the pageant will be sold at the door for $10. Students receive free admission with a student ID.\nLindsay Shipps, executive director of the Miss Indiana IU Scholarship Organization, said Straight No Chaser, a men’s a cappella group at IU, will perform in the second half of the program.\nShipps restarted the pageant in 2006 after it discontinued in 1969. She said the women’s liberation movement in the early 1970s might be responsible for the program’s temporary interruption. \n“People thought it did nothing to move women forward,” Shipps said.\nShipps was inspired to restart the program after her own experience in pageants. At the time, many of the schools in the state had pageants when IU did not, she said. Shipps said the Union Board supported her efforts to bring back the pageant. \n“There is no way our pageant would occur without the Union Board,” she said. \nFreshman and Director of the Union Board Spirits and Traditions Committee Brian Holthouse said the committee is involved with the pageant as well as various IU traditions, such as Homecoming and finals week breakfast.\n“We uphold and carry on a lot of the traditions at IU,” Holthouse said.\nHolthouse said the Spirits and Traditions Committee has been working on the pageant since January. \n“Union Board’s mission is to provide quality programming to students and by students,” Holthouse said. \nShipps said that in order to compete in the Miss IU pageant, a contestant must be between the ages of 17 and 24, never married and sign a contract that verifies citizenship and other background information. She said the IU Foundation donated $6,000 in scholarship money that will be awarded to the top five contestants. Prize money is also provided to winners of a talent and interview award, she said.\nSenior Megan Knigga will be competing in Sunday’s pageant. She said the pageant is a good opportunity to earn scholarship money. \n“You can compete 33 times and never win but still have the opportunity to win scholarship money,” Knigga said.\nThe pageant contestants met Wednesday evening with Shipps and Holthouse to practice before the pageant. Shipps said the girls practiced walking patterns and interview questions, and were given the opportunity to have a private consultation. Shipps said some of the girls will meet on Friday for a spray tan party provided by a pageant sponsor. The girls will eat dinner and watch pageants to prepare themselves for Sunday.\nKnigga said preparation for a pageant requires her to stay up-to-date with happenings in her community. She said it is also important to be true to oneself when participating in a pageant.\n“Being ourselves is the best thing you can be, because no one else can be you,” she said. “It gives me confidence to say this is who I am, take it or leave it.”