Only a few tickets left for pageant fundraiser
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 10, 2010 1:47 PM
Anyone who had planned on attending this weekend's Wayne County's Sweetheart Womanless Beauty Pageant may just be out of luck -- as of this morning only 19 of the 495 tickets to the event remained.
And organizers expect that those tickets will be sold before the day ends. Also, Tuesday was the deadline to purchase tickets for the steak dinner that will be held prior to the pageant, both of which are fundraisers for Terrell's Tornados, the Wayne County employees Relay for Life team.
The pageant will be held Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre. Organizers are hopeful the two events will raise $10,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Tickets to the pageant are $15 each or two for $25. For tickets, contact Grover Hood at 734-5281, ext. 3.
Along with selling tickets to the pageant, some $3,000 worth of advertisements have been sold for the pageant program book.
The inside front cover of the book will be in memory of, or in honor of, people who have been affected by cancer.
The steak dinner will be held from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Wayne Center, corner of George and Chestnut streets. Tickets are $15 each or two for $25. For tickets, contact Charlotte Jenkins at 734-5281, ext. 3.
Even though Tuesday was the deadline for tickets to the dinner it is still possible to make a purchase, Hood said.
He said that 160 of the 200 tickets for the event have been sold.
Hood said he had been somewhat concerned about tickets to the pageant because of the economy. He noted that tickets for the first pageant four years ago had sold out within 48 hours.
"I am excited," he said. "We have had a lot of good support. I am well satisfied and I think it will be exciting. To me it (raising funds for the Cancer Society) is a good cause. Everybody knows somebody who has been touched by cancer."
Hood noted that his father, who will celebrate his 90th birthday this year, is a cancer survivor
The contestants for the pageant, all of whom are county employees except for one, are:
*Stephen Potter, DSS
*Edward Miller, Health Department
*Luis Carrasquillo, DSS
*Albert Jones, Wayne NET
*Bud Gray, county commissioner
*Howard Scott, Cooperative Extension director
*Trey Rhodes, EMS
*Alan Lumpkin, Tax Department
*Carey Winders, sheriff.
One contestant, Michael Berry, had to drop out of the event because of health reasons, Hood said.
The first pageant, held at Wayne Community College in 2006, raised approximately $7,000. County Manager Lee Smith won the pageant and Winders was the talent winner. Lumpkin was runner-up.
WGBR radio disc jockey Wayne Alley will be the master of ceremonies.
Entertainment will be provided by Elvis tribute artist Alvin Smith, former Miss Goldsboro Jill Suggs Howell and Eric Lumpkin, who will play the saxophone.
Center Stage Theater is providing the props and will do the makeup and hair the night of the pageant.
The "Village People" are scheduled to perform, too.
And for those who cannot attend, don't fret -- DVDs will be available of the pageant, Hood said.
"It is just like being there," he said.