By STEVE PRISAMENT
Staff Writer

ABSECON – The directors of the Miss Absecon Scholarship Pageant are hoping to return the contest to being a full pageant this year, rather than an essay contest.

But they still need a couple more contestants.

A year ago, when the organization couldn’t enlist enough candidates to hold a pageant, it switched to the essay format, which requires less of a time commitment from candidates.

Co-directors Karen Warner and Amy Evans, who took over the pageant last year after Miss Absecon Currie Cressey was chosen, said they need at least five contestants to hold a full pageant.

“The pageant consists of a talent, swimsuit and evening wear portion, together with an interview with judges to be held the day of the pageant,” Warner said Wednesday, May 21.

“We need five for a pageant. If we can get them, we’d like to have the pageant at the end of June. We have three contestants; we need two more,” she said.

Cressey entered other pageants during her reign, representing the city.  The two directors know they lucked out having an essay winner with the talent and poise to enter other events.

The directors have received praise from Cressey – one of the hardest-working Miss Absecons.

“They pick me up and take me everywhere,” Cressey said. “It’s great. My parents don’t have to drive me. They – the Miss Absecon Scholarship Pageant – sponsored me in the county pageant. That’s huge. Amy, without her I wouldn’t have done it. Karen, she drove and wrote the checks. They sat with my family.”

Warner said if the contest is to be decided by an essay again, it would probably be announced in early July with the crowning at the Ben Graziano Concert Stage in Heritage Park before one of the summer concerts, as was done last year.

“We’ve had fun,” Warner said of her year at the helm. “We just had a golf tournament at Seaview. We’ll be in the Memorial Day parade. Currie has been a wonderful Miss Absecon. She’s always looking for things to participate in.”
Cressey, a teacher in Port Republic, said the year has been nothing but positive for her.

The daughter of longtime Absecon residents Mary Pat and Rick Cressey, she has been an advocate for reading and literacy.
“In college I was an officer of International Reading Association,” she said. “We read to children and donated books.”
Single women between the ages of 17 and 23 who live in Absecon are eligible to enter the pageant.
To enter or for information email Evans at graciemom6@comcast.net.

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