White Lake Water Festival Pageant Resurrection

WHITE LAKE – Local beauties are heading “Back to the Beach.”

There has been no White Lake Water Festival pageant since 2011 and that streak ends this year with the new and improved children’s and young adult beauty competition. This year’s theme will be “Back to the Beach.”

Penny Britt, who graduated from Clarkton High School and still lives there today, and White Lake local who graduated from East Bladen High School, Karen Lewis have taken on the challenge after stepping away from running pageants for over a decade. Most recently Britt has been working for the Bladen County Sheriff’s office and Lewis has been a military wife for 36 years. This year they hope to continue a strong trend and keep the pageant going – setting March 8 as the big day.

The WLWF pageant will be held at The Venue at the Grand Regal located at 1564 White Lake Drive in White Lake, which is a part of the Grand Regal resort.

Britt is a veteran of over 30 years running pageants and her first pageant was for the Clarkton tobacco festival. She was also director of the White Lake Water Festival for a time. Lewis not only appeared in pageants, but also had daughters that participated.

The two women are not strangers, having known each other since they were children.

“My mom worked in Clarkton,” Lewis said. “So, she and I used to hang out on the swing sets at the park. Normally, now, when you see one of us at a festival, you will also see the other.”

The pageant rebirth came from the people who organize the festival.

“I worked with the water festival committee last year,” Lewis said. “We did a poll after the festival asking everybody what would they like to see back. The pageant was one of the biggest things that they wanted back. I volunteered with the fashion show last year and a couple of other things.”

The next step was the addition of her good friend and talented pageant veteran.

“I told the director for the water festival that I wanted her (Britt) to be a part of it too,” Lewis said. “So that’s how we got back in it.”

“And I was thinking, what am I getting myself back into,” Britt said. “I’ve retired three times and here I am again.”

At this point there are at least 10 contestants. They do not as yet have a “Miss” contestant presently, but are hoping that category fills up before the registration deadline to Feb. 21. At this time, although the businesses have really rallied behind bringing the pageant back, Lewis said that she was hoping to gain more support so that each contestant could be sponsored.

“We are really big on sponsorship,” Lewis said. “We can even help them find a sponsor.”

Once a contestant gets their application in, there is a fee of $110 which doesn’t come out of their pocket if they have a sponsor. The categories that each contestant will participate are evening gown and outfit of choice.

The pageant promises to have some great surrounding ambiance with everything including the food.

“A lot of pageants will have like a bag of chips and a drink,” Lewis said. “I am not one to do things halfway. We have people making homemade baked goods, San Jose’s from the lake is going to be making salsa, guacamole and chips, Pizza is going to be provided by Keith over at American Griddle for free.”

The pageant is still hoping for an influx of contestants, more volunteers and more sponsors to make this comeback a complete success.

Categories include: Tiny Miss 3-5, Little Miss 6-9, Junior Miss is 10-12, Teen Miss 13-16, Miss 17-21.

Setup for the event will be Friday, March 7 and the pageant will begin promptly at 6 p.m.

“At 1 p.m. at the Venue we are doing something special,” Lewis said. “We are going to have all the former queens gather for a meet and greet. And at night, instead of an opening number we are going to have all the former queens come up and get recognition and introduce themselves and tell which year they were crowned.”