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New Haven area contestants have had plenty of crowning moments
(New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 12--Editor's Note: Assistant Metro Editor Ann DeMatteo, secretary of the Miss Connecticut Board of Directors, has been a volunteer in the Miss America scholarship program since 1991.
IN THE 80-YEAR HISTORY of the Miss Connecticut Scholarship Pageant, the quest for the crown seems to center in New Haven County, especially since 1973, when no fewer than a dozen Miss Connecticuts were from the region.
One might say the New Haven connection began in 1933, when 15-year-old Marian Bergeron became "Greater Miss New Haven" on July 29 at the old Rivoli Theater. She received the state title in Norwalk seven days later, and the national crown was placed on her blonde tresses on Sept. 9.
North Haven boasts the highest number of winners in recent years with Deborah Blanchard the winner in 1973, Lorraine Hudson in 1986, Valorie Abate in 1992, Marla Prete in 2003 and Nikki Palmieri in 2004.
Other area winners include Lorine Guagenti of Derby, 1985; Michelle "Missy" Eaton of Shelton, 1987; Stephanie Stiefel of West Haven, 1991; MaryGrace Santagata of New Haven, 1994; Renelle Richardson of Branford, 2000; and Heidi Voight of Milford, 2006. Meriden added Maryalice Flintroy in 1978 and Marissa Perez in 2001.
Looking back on their pageant experiences, local Miss Connecticuts say that many of the skills they acquired during the rigors of pageant competition have carried them through their adult lives.
Marla Prete is no longer tap-dancing before a crowd, but she's constantly on her toes, working with patients as a physical therapist at Montowese Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in North Haven.
On a recent afternoon, she brought out her new putter -- a birthday gift -- and pushed four men in wheelchairs outside with the help of another employee. The goal was to get them moving about in a game of mock golf using a tennis ball and a bucket.
"It's nice to get them up from their wheelchairs, to have them stand, shift their weight. It mimics what they will have to do in functional life," she said in between joking with patients and supporting them while they were standing and swinging.
Prete is thankful for her year as Miss Connecticut. The scholarship money went toward paying for her master's with distinction in physical therapy at Quinnipiac University. Another Miss Connecticut scholarship paid for the acupuncture license she received at Briarwood College.
Besides the talent, swimsuit and evening gown competitions, each contestant must be interviewed by a panel of judges before winning the crown, which leads to scholarship money on the state and national level. Former Miss Connecticuts say all the interview practice and public speaking they did solidified their self-confidence and helped them win the jobs they've wanted.
"I recently changed jobs, so I was very able to market myself," said Prete, who will be married in September.
Stephanie Stiefel Williams of Guilford, Miss Connecticut 1991 and married mother of two, is a lawyer and professional performer. Valorie Abate Porto of North Haven, her successor, is married with three children and is a music teacher at North Haven Middle School.
Volunteerism continues to rank high for former Miss Connecticuts, with Prete still active in Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Her successor, Nikki Palmieri, is still a staunch anti-tobacco advocate. She is on the board of directors of the MATCH Coalition and the Board of Trustees Tobacco and Health Trust Fund. She belongs to a national speakers bureau for which she develops and presents programs for social change through advocacy and youth empowerment.
"What most people don't realize are the tactics the tobacco industry uses to normalize smoking. They make it seem acceptable, to portray it as an acceptable adult behavior and a matter of personal choice," said Palmieri, who earned $16,000 in scholarship money in the three years she competed. She graduated summa cum laude from Connecticut College with a degree in anthropology. She also earned her master's degree in secondary education from the University of New Haven, which provides in-kind scholarships to Miss Connecticuts.
Palmieri is a U.S. and world history teacher at Greens Farms Academy in Westport.
Both Prete and Palmieri are still active in the Miss Connecticut program. Prete is the director of the Rising Star pageant for younger girls and is the business manager for Miss Connecticut's Outstanding Teen. Palmieri is the coexecutive director of the Greater Hamden/ North Haven Scholarship Pageant, one of the local programs that sends contestants to the state pageant.
Miss Connecticut 1986 Lorraine Hudson is now known as Joey Lorraine Jacob. A Realtor with Prudential Connecticut in Guilford and owner of Healing Homes LLC, a decorating company, she lives in Guilford with husband, Steve Jacob. She is the mother of two from a previous marriage.
Jacob has been a performer, public speaker and worked in television and radio for more than 20 years. Philanthropic fund-raising has been a major part of her life. She has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit and charitable organizations including Wightwood School in Branford, Clifford W. Beers Guidance Center for Children and Families and AIDS Project New Haven. She was a diversity trainer for the Anti-Defamation League's A World of Difference program and now is the shoreline volunteer coordinator for Heifer International, a global organization that provides animals and training to impoverished people in 52 countries so they can create sustainable livelihoods.
Miss Connecticut 1985, Lorine Guagenti Zdanowski, says that if it weren't for having to prepare for the Miss America pageant, she may never have read "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." The theory behind Stephen Covey's book led her on a course of personal achievement that went from teaching special education and being a pageant coach, to being a representative for a school specialty company.
Some of the materials that Zdanowski sells to school districts helps students become more organized and incorporates lessons from the "seven habits," she said. She also sells Silpada jewelry.
"I credit the pageant for starting to improve skills in myself and down the road I found a company to use my passion for personal development. I've increased the size of my classroom by working with Premier and promoting the seven habits in northern and central Connecticut and part of Massachusetts," she said.
Zdanowski, married for 20 years, enjoys working in the home because she feels it's important to make time to be a parent. She's often carting her children, ages 15 and 13, to their various activities in and around Cheshire, their hometown.
Miss Connecticut 1994 MaryGrace Santagata Crisci was known for her singing and her record 450 appearances when she held the crown.
The winner of a nonfinalist talent award at Miss America, Crisci, a Hamden resident, said the experiences she gained when she came back from the national pageant is what made her year as Miss Connecticut worthwhile. She had already earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Rhode Island, and was able to be a full-time Miss Connecticut.
She often visited senior centers and prisons and every locale in between. "I had wonderful appearances speaking in public. Realizing the world was made up of all kinds of people made me a very well-rounded individual. I think I can roll with the punches. I'm comfortable in all kinds of environments," she said. These days, she doesn't have much time for singing, and volunteer work has taken a back seat to working full time as a sales account manager for a communications company and being a wife and mother to Michael, 2.
"I love being a mother. It's an honor bigger than winning Miss America," she said. Contact Ann DeMatteo at adematteo@nhregister.com or (203) 789-5716.
To see more of New Haven Register, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nhregister.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, New Haven Register, Conn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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