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The general public is invited to attend two beauty pageants that will be held on Saturday, Jan. 29, according to Laurie Jennings Phillips, who is overseeing the first one. The 2022 Little, Young, Pre-Teen, Junior Miss Vallerata pageant involving girls in pre-K through the eighth grade will be held at 10 a.m. in the Langdale Auditorium at Lafayette Lanier Elementary School. The 2022 Miss Vallerata pageant involving high schoolers will take place at the Langdale Auditorium at 6 p.m. Included with the Miss Vallerata pageant will be the Mister and Miss Valley High School contest. Tickets to each event will cost $5 and can be bought at the door.

Phillips is the media specialist and cheer coach at Valley High School. She said the younger grades’ pageant is being held as a fundraiser to pay for her cheerleading team’s trip to a national competition in Orlando. It will include contestants from throughout the Chambers County School District. The high school pageant is just for VHS students.

Phillips said 36 kids are participating in the younger beauty pageant.

“The winner of each age group gets a crown, and then obviously, they get flowers and they get a trophy,” she said. “And then the other winners get a trophy, and some of them also get flowers. And then they all get a participation medal.” 

She said the younger and older pageants aren’t very different.

“[For] the high school pageant, they do have to speak just a little bit and answer a question, but that’s about the only difference,” Phillips said. “They don’t speak at the elementary level. There’s no swimsuit or no talent or anything like that [at any grade level].”

Phillips said she wasn’t sure how many runner-ups there will be at the high school level.

“Our participation’s kind of dwindled in the last few years,” she said. “When COVID hit, it kind of put a crack in it for a while, and it hasn’t really built back up. I know they’ll have a winner. I know they’ll have a Miss Congeniality.”

The Miss Vallerata winner will get a crown and flowers.

Eight girls will compete in the high school beauty pageant. Phillips said she believes there are 11 students up for Mr. and Miss VHS.

The contestants in the Mr. and Miss VHS competition are seniors chosen by faculty through an interview process, Phillips said.

The two winners will each receive a plaque, and the female winner will also receive flowers.