“There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. That label stuck, and we've spent a lot of time since defending it.“He just came strolling right in,” Dixon said. "In the '80s, it kind of fell out of favor and was viewed as a beauty pageant. "In the early '70s, the program was very well respected," she says. Her ultimate goal, she says, is to revive the days when there was a Junior Miss program in almost every Maryland county. Suddenly, Cheri Poklemba was back in the game. Her daughter's interest in the Junior Miss program revived her own. Soon, though, she had three children to raise, and her pageant mementos languished in the curio cabinet. For a while, she volunteered with the state Junior Miss program as a choreographer and master of ceremonies.
In 1977, she married Al Poklemba, then a teacher and coach at McDonogh, and settled into campus housing. Later, she earned more money for education by winning the title of Miss Allegany County in the Miss Maryland Scholarship Organization.Īfter graduating with a bachelor's degree in speech communications and theater, Poklemba taught modeling and grooming at the Wendy Ward Charm School of the Montgomery Ward's in Frederick. After winning the title of Frederick County's Junior Miss in 1973, she took her scholarship to what is now Frostburg State University. Her parents encouraged her to enter any competitions she thought might earn college scholarships. Her mother impressed them twirling batons.Ĭheri Poklemba grew up in Middletown in Frederick County, the oldest of four children. She impressed the judges by singing country music.
But they're also really involved in their communities, and they do things like dance and play the violin." "The girls who participate are really well-rounded and really driven," she says.
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Then, when schoolmate Olaleye won a $5,000 scholarship and a full four-year scholarship to Troy State University in Alabama, most of the teasing subsided, Brooke Poklemba says. Several years ago, when Brooke Poklemba was playing hockey and lacrosse for McDonogh School, she took a lot of ribbing about her pageant participation - until she won a $1,800 scholarship. Some of her staunchest support comes from her own resident pageant winner, 20-year-old Brooke Poklemba, a freshman at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., who hopes to pursue a singing career.
And these pageant alumni are comfortable with helping out - and asking others to lend a hand. Virtually all of the volunteers for today's pageant have personal experience with such competitions, Poklemba says. Poklemba also reached Ronke Olaleye, Maryland's reigning Junior Miss, and picked the pageant date based upon her availability: She's on college break. The scholarship money, between $2,500 and $3,000 total, was raised primarily from committee members, volunteers and friends. Several admissions officers agreed to evaluate the contestants' academic records, which make up 20 percent of contestants' overall scores. McDaniel College, an institution with a history of offering scholarships to Junior Miss winners, provided the venue. A contestant orientation meeting early last month attracted girls from Carroll, Frederick, Howard and Montgomery counties. Announcements about the 2006 pageant were posted on Web sites, and Poklemba contacted high school guidance counselors.
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Thanksgiving weekend, the committee agreed on how to put the program together.
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