Beyond dreams

BY TOM NETHERLAND
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER

A diamond ring glittered golden upon the finger of Lauren Barnette as she navigated traffic from Los Angeles to San Diego last Friday afternoon.

Now that's three thousand miles and a world away from her roots in Wise, Va.

The 2008 Virginia Tech graduate need only look at her ring to recall her route westward.

Barnette won the Miss Virginia USA 2007 title. She also won Miss Virginia Teen USA 2002. She won a crown ring for each.

"My mother has my tiaras," Barnette said. "But I wear my crown ring for Miss Virginia USA every single day."

Television viewers may have unwittingly seen Barnette. She worked as a suitcase girl on NBC's Howie Mandel-hosted primetime television game show "Deal or No Deal."

"I was case number 2," Barnette said.

And in each episode there upon her finger glittered Barnette's crown ring.

"I wear it as a reminder to keep setting goals, to keep working toward them," she said.

Barnette returns home to Wise and Virginia as often as possible. That includes several years running to date as the host of the annual Miss Virginia USA and Miss Virginia Teen USA pageants. The pageants revolve from the Donald Trump and NBC owned Miss Universe Organization, which yields licenses to such companies as Bristol, Va., based KPJ Productions.

"(KPJ Productions) is the company that holds the license," said Kim Nicewonder, who has led the way as executive director for nearly 20 years. "I am the licensee, KPJ Productions."

A native of Norton, Va., Nicewonder also holds the title of Miss Virginia USA 1989.

"The hairstyles have softened and the makeup is more natural now," the mother of three children said. "It's gotten back to the individual girls. It's more about promoting the beauty from within."

Established in 1952, Miss USA features one winner from each of 50 states, such as Virginia's newly crowned Miss Virginia USA 2012 Catherine Muldoon of Virginia Beach. As with Miss Virginia Teen USA 2012 title-holder Elizabeth Coakley of Abingdon, they will now proceed to compete in Miss USA 2012 and Miss Teen USA 2012. If Muldoon wins, she will then move forth to compete against contestants worldwide in Miss Universe 2012.

"It'll be a whirlwind of an experience," Muldoon said Monday evening from her home in Virginia Beach. "It's such an incredible experience, words can't describe."

Nicewonder can relate. She competed as Miss Virginia USA in the 1989 Miss USA pageant in Mobile, Ala. Dick Clark hosted, Angie Dickinson commentated while Nicewonder won Miss Congeniality, the only Miss Virginia contestant to date to do so.

"Oh my gosh, it was an honor," Nicewonder said. "I was dumbfounded."

Couple that with the fact that Nicewonder had won Miss Congeniality at the state level two years running beforehand.

"I've never known of anyone else to do that," she said.

File such an experience in a category labeled beyond dreams.

That's precisely what Barnette strives to reach, goals made and dreams realized.

"I'm working now as an entertainment host," Barnette, 26, said. "I moved to Los Angeles from Wise three years ago. I do red carpet events, I've had auditions for commercials, I've had modeling jobs but I love hosting."

Barnette's journey to her dreams achieved essentially began April 10, 1985, the day she was born in Wise. She's since competed in more pageants than she can recollect.

"I've been a pageant girl since before I could walk," she said. "It has paved the way for the career I have chosen."

Cynics need only ask Barnette of the many perhaps not so obvious benefits of beauty pageant participation.

"Public speaking, confidence, learning details like how to dress and how to apply makeup properly, it has prepared me for wanting to be a host," Barnette said. "The Miss Virginia USA pageants instilled that in me."

Take note parents of children who wish to enter next year's Miss Virginia Teen USA 2013 pageant. Likewise, adult women who have designs on participating in Miss Virginia USA 2013. There are rules for entry, available online at www.missvirginiausa.com.

Ages of eligible entrants run from 14 to 19 in Miss Virginia Teen USA and 18 to 27 in Miss Virginia USA.

A number of aspects available to the girls includes proper hair care and makeup application. Also, Nicewonder said that Linda Stollings, who has been associated with Nicewonder's company since it began, aids in their physical preparations.

"She puts the girls on the program and is their fitness coach," Nicewonder said. "She owns fitPrescriptions in Bristol."

A program also exists for girls ages 8 to 13.

"We have a new program, the Inspiring Princess Program," Nicewonder said. "It's a self-developing program during the weekend of the pageant."

Consider it a process of preparation should they wish to continue on into competitive pageants.

"They get to be on stage," Nicewonder said. "They get a tiara and just have the time of their life."

Though a site has yet to be determined, next year's Miss Virginia USA and Miss Virginia Teen USA pageants are scheduled for November.

"I am now coming up on my 20th anniversary," Nicewonder said. "Bristol is in consideration (as a site) because Bristol is where I had my first one. I'm looking at Richmond and Bristol."

Befitting a 20th anniversary, a bevy of special recognitions will occur.

"We're having all the former title holders coming back," Nicewonder said.

That of course includes current Miss Virginia, Catherine Muldoon, who works as a dentist in Virginia Beach. Born in Sleepy Holllow, N.Y., she's lived in such locales as Philadelphia, New York City and Virginia.

"I call Virginia my home," she said. "I feel like winning solidified the hard work put into it. I feel like it gives you a microphone to get across your views, to talk about things that are important to you."

For Muldoon that materializes in the form of Operation Smile.

Operation Smile is an international children's organization that helps treat facial deformities such as cleft palates and cleft lips, an ideal avenue for a dentist such as Muldoon.

"I've been raising money for Operation Smile for a long time," she said.

Meanwhile, at the home of her mother in Wise, Va., inside a curio cabinet that belonged to her grandmother — the late Belva Bolling, the mayor of Pound, Va., and said Barnette, “the first woman mayor in Virginia” —  resides Barnette's sparkling crown for having won Miss Virginia Teen USA 2002.

"My other is here in Los Angeles," she said. "I have a crown box for it."

Those things mean a lot to Barnette. But they fall in line just behind a much larger aspect of her years of participation in Nicewonder's Miss Virginia pageants.

"Literally everything I do the Miss Virginia pageants and Kim taught me," Barnette said. "It prepared me. It's about being  yourself."

Tom Netherland is a freelance writer. He may be reached at features@bristolnews.com.

Contact Info
» What: Miss Virginia USA
» Where: 22512 Clubhouse Ridge, Bristol, Va. 24201
» Phone: (276) 466-6782
» Web and video: www.missvirginiausa.com

MISS VIRGINIA USA 2012 - Catherine Muldoon
» 1st Runner Up - Arielle Rosmarino
» 2nd Runner Up - Emily Hall
» 3rd Runner Up - Lindsay Knox
» 4th Runner Up - Sarah Jones

MISS VIRGINIA TEEN USA 2012 - Elizabeth Coakley
» 1st Runner Up - Destani Huffman-Jefferson
» 2nd Runner Up - Riley Copans
» 3rd Runner Up - Julie Boggs
» 4th Runner Up - Azure'Rae Turner

» Miss Congeniality for Miss Virginia 2012 - Brandy Smoot
» Miss Congeniality for Miss Virginia TEEN USA 2012 - Haley Bohon