Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Rough year takes its toll on Seminole pageant

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published January 15, 2006

SEMINOLE - The tsunami and hurricanes may not have directly hit this city, but they are still taking their toll - on the Miss Seminole pageant.

Local businesses are so tapped out with giving to victims of natural disasters that they couldn't donate hotel rooms, trophies and other goods for Miss Seminole.

Without those donations, putting on the pageant became an impossible feat, said Henny Hlas, executive director of the Miss Seminole Scholarship Pageant. So Hlas decided to forgo the pageant this year.

She made the announcement at Tuesday's City Council meeting. But she vowed it would be only a one-year hiatus and that the pageant would come back stronger than ever in 2007.

"I know she tried to bring it together," Seminole council member Jimmy Johnson said.

But the problems Hlas encountered, he said, were "understandable . . . very understandable. . . . A lot of the funds did get channeled into different directions."

Those included victims of the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Also included were the Seminole firefighters who had a toy drive at Christmas. Johnson said they did well.

Still, Johnson said, he thinks local businesses are overextended in their charitable giving and that 2006 will likely be a year when companies cut back.

The pageant has been a tradition for almost four decades. It's unclear if Rachel Potter, the current Miss Seminole, will continue to reign until the next pageant.

[Last modified January 15, 2006, 01:47:20]