BUCKHANNON, W.Va. (WV News) – Over 350 people watched as Nevaeh Harmon was crowned Miss West Virginia USA on June 4 at the Virginia Thomas Law Center for the Performing Arts in Buckhannon. Another 100 people watched the pageant on a live streaming service.
Harmon is student body vice president at Marshall University where she is working on earning her degree in biochemistry. Harmon wants to eventually become a pediatrician.
Harmon will represent West Virginia in the Miss USA pageant.
First runner-up was Tamia Hardy representing Berkeley County. Second runner-up was Emma Knapp representing Star City. Third runner-up was Cassidy Myers representing the West Virginia Strawberry Festival. Fourth runner-up Erin Wellman representing West Virginia Three Rivers Festival.
The crown for Miss West Virginia Teen USA was won by Lakyn Campbell. She is a native of Parkersburg and will represent the state at the Miss Teen USA pageant. Lakyn graduated from Parkersurg High School last month and will attend West Virginia University as a part of their Honors College. First runner-up was Baylee Jarrett representing Nicholas County and second runner-up was Kourtney Jones representing West Virginia Three Rivers Festival.
The pageant also marked the end of pageant director Randy Sanders’ career working with pageants in West Virginia and around the country. He said it was bittersweet to be on the stage for the last time, but that he was looking forward to taking a break for a while and pursuing other opportunities.
“It was wonderful. It felt right, it felt a little bittersweet of course, but no regrets at all. The audience and the contestants were just phenomenal,” Sanders said.
Paula Shugart, the President of the Miss Universe Organization, was on hand to present Sanders with an award commemorating the 37 years he has worked with the Miss Universe Organization.
“For her to be there was really special. I started working on pageants (Strawberry Festival) when I moved to Buckhannon from Rock Cave and so to end my career here makes it a full circle experience and it was special to do it here,” Sanders said.
“For this to be my last pageant production and show in the pageant world it was awesome, it really was. We had a great group of contestants and staff,” Sanders said. “Logistics for putting on a pageant is finding a good location with the right features for having a pageant. You have to build your outside sponsors to help with preparation. Marketing is so important as well. It takes us six months to put everything together.”
His production team for this weekend’s pageant came from several states around the country. Sanders was happy with everyone’s efforts during the week-long event and thanked the judges who flew in from several different states.
The contestants and reigning royalty showed up Thursday evening for registration, a meal, rehearsals, and then had a pajama party with all of the contestants. They explained what it was like to be in a pageant and then what it is like to represent the state for the next year in various public appearances.
On Saturday contestants in both competitions went through a private interview process with two panels of judges as a part of the preliminary process. Rehearsals followed and then The Miss WV USA contestants competed in swimwear and evening gowns.
Miss Teen USA contestants competed in active wear and evening gown. The Miss USA contestants who made it to top five competed against one another in an on-stage question. Each category is judged equally for each contestant.
On Sunday the judges narrowed the fields of contestants. In Miss WV USA they whittled down from 18 contestants to 10 and the Miss Teen WV USA was whittled down from 12 to the top six.
The final five for Miss WV USA and the final for three for Miss Teen WV USA were then chosen. The last event in the contest were “fish bowl” questions, a type of ad-lib question for the contestants.
“We pull questions out of the fish bowl for them and the judges know that they are not to base your final decision just on that fish bowl question. They decide on the entire contest during the weekend,” Sanders said.
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