Editor,

On May 2 we celebrated a special moment of firsts for Oak Harbor as we crowned Miss Oak Harbor 2015, Dejsha Lollar, along with First Princess, Mara Powers, and Second Princess, Jacalyn Hefflefinger.

While our show had a few glitches in its first year, we were pleased to break through common beauty pageant stereotypes with a focus on areas such as scholastics, service, fitness and participation.

The end result of more than $4,800 in scholarship money awarded far exceeded our expectations.

The success of this program would not have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors.

We humbly thank all of the businesses and individuals for their support and contributions.

We would also like to thank our Mistress of Ceremonies, Christine Cribb, our auditors, Kathy Jolly and Ronnie Wright, and our judges, Jeff McMahan, Kenzi Novell, Keven Graves, Nora O’Connell Balda and Tara Hizon.

We acknowledge special appreciation for our backstage crew and pageant-night helpers, Abbie Martin, Barbara Hernandez, Jim Nelson, Mollie Brodt, OHHS NJROTC Color Guard, Susan Jensen, TJ Pierzchala, Vic Rikard and Wildcat TV.

We would also like to thank our great community for the support of our program and participants, our contestants for their unflagging commitment to the program and its process, and the nine sets of parents who shared their daughters with us and stood behind them all the way.

You all made this inaugural event exciting and successful, and we are so grateful.

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much — Helen Keller.

Sincerely,

Jes Walker Wyse and River Powers

Pageant Wyse