community service and volunteering and pageants

many people ask what is so great about pageants, all they are are beauty contests... well that is not true.

many of the pageant programs are mentoring programs, younger girls have older ones to look up to, and learn from.

in the Miss America/Miss IL system the girls in the Miss and Teen division require a platform and the preteens have a community service or platform.
Also with the Miss IL system one of the main community programs for which they fundraise is the Children's Miracle Network. All Miss contestants are required to fundraise for that program.

Sheridan's platform this year was fundraising for the food pantry. We like to go to the local church every third Saturday of the month and sort the food and hand it out. this is an outside program/pantry and no matter the weather we are out there. we also donate to the LIbertyville Township pantry as well as the Beth Am synogogue pantry where we participate yearly in the Stamp Out Hunger event in the fall. we sponsor queens to join us with NISP every year for that one.

The nice thing about the pageant systems, weather the Miss IL system or feeder pageant systems or the NISP, Northern Illinois Scholarship Program, or American Coed, NAM or many others, the girls all give back by donating time to community service events. The need to help out is engrained with these girls at a young age and they do it generously and give back often and have fun while helping others.

Sheridan has done a Lyme diseas walk, many cancer walks, whether walking around and having gathered/raised money, or volunteering handing out Gatorade for a marathon or handing out food at a pantry.

So therefore, another reason to be in pageants is to learn the community service part of volunteering.