HIGH POINT — Long live the queens!
The Miss North Carolina Pageant returns to High Point this week, bringing with it more than 1,800 visitors — including the 57 young women competing for the Miss North Carolina and Miss North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen crowns — and an estimated economic impact of more than $675,000.
“This is a significant event, and it’s one that we’re happy to have here in High Point,” said Nancy Bowman, director of sales and marketing for Visit High Point. “We’ve enjoyed welcoming them for the past three years. And what’s very exciting is that they’re here from Tuesday till Sunday, so it’s pretty much a weeklong event.”
Events began Tuesday with a red carpet arrival ceremony at the High Point Theatre, followed by the awarding of about $40,000 in scholarship money to the candidates competing for the title. The organization’s Carolina Princess Program, for girls ages 6-12, had a pizza party Wednesday afternoon at Truist Point, where the girls got to meet a former Miss America, Heather French Henry.
The actual competition begins today at the High Point Theatre, with preliminaries in the Miss North Carolina and Miss North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen pageants taking place today and Friday. The finals of both pageants will be held Saturday, with the new Miss North Carolina being crowned Saturday evening. The winner will go on to compete in the Miss America Pageant later this year.
Tickets for both events are available through the theater box office.
Traditionally held in Raleigh, the Miss North Carolina Pageant officially moved to High Point last year. The move obviously pleased city officials — the pageant has an estimated economic impact of $677,346 — but pageant officials seem happy with the move, too.
“High Point played an integral part in the success of our 2021 competition,” Susan Williams, executive director of the Miss North Carolina Organization, said in a statement.
“Nancy Bowman and her team (at Visit High Point) have spent countless hours helping us plan the 2022 competitions, and I’m thankful for their commitment to our mission. The Triad region has a long and rich history with the Miss North Carolina Organization, and we are excited to crown our goodwill ambassador here.”
The story of how the pageant ended up in High Point goes back to 2019, when the city hosted the Outstanding Teen portion of the competition because the two competitions had outgrown their Raleigh venue. The 2020 pageant was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but officials had such a positive experience here in 2019 that they decided to make High Point the permanent home of both pageants last year.
According to city and pageant officials, High Point won the pageant officials over with congeniality.
“We just really appreciate our partners within the community, mainly the hotels and restaurants who step up and support the group when they come to High Point, whether it’s through discounted room rates, coupons or sponsoring different activities throughout the week,” Bowman said. “That’s a really big deal, and we couldn’t do it without them.”
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