Casey Croom to compete for Miss North Carolina crown
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on June 19, 2016 1:45 AM
Full Size
Goldsboro's Outstanding Teen, Isabella Gaines, left, and Miss Goldsboro 2016, Casey Croom, talk about preparing for the Miss North Carolina Scholarship Pageant during a wardrobe showing at the Wayne Museum last weekend.
This will be quite a week for Casey Croom, Miss Goldsboro 2016.
Monday, her 23rd birthday, she heads to Raleigh to compete for the Miss North Carolina crown.
That afternoon, contestants will be at the Governor's mansion, with interviews on Tuesday and that evening marking the beginning of three days of preliminary events leading into the pageant Saturday night.
She received the local crown in November, but the dream began long before -- dating back to 1998, when she saw Jill Suggs Howell take the win in 1998.
Miss Croom embarked on her own pageant experiences, including being a contestant for Wayne County Fire Princess in 2010, representing Nahunta Fire Department. She then vied for the Miss Goldsboro crown in 2013 and 2014, losing out to Beth Stovall (later Miss North Carolina 2014) and Emily Tucker, respectively.
Perseverance paid off, though, when she became Miss Rose Hill 2015 and competed at the state level last year.
But the title she always sought was Miss Goldsboro.
"To me, growing up, I didn't even realize who Miss Goldsboro was, that she went on to compete at Miss North Carolina," she said. "I just thought she got to be Miss Goldsboro and it doesn't get any better than that."
Representing her hometown and hopefully making its citizens proud is important to her, she says.
Growing up in Pikeville, in an agricultural-based family -- both late grandfathers were farmers and childhood involved learning to drive a tractor -- taught her about the value of hard work, she said.
"I think that really came into play with Miss Goldsboro because it took me three times before I won," she said. "You set your mind to something -- this is your goal, this is your dream. Go for it."
The daughter of David and Beth Croom, she has an older sister, Carrie Croom-Vick, of Fremont. Her grandmothers are Barbara Howard of Nahunta and Leigh Ann Croom of Pikeville.
After graduating from Princeton High School in 2011, she received a bachelor of science degree in community health education in 2015. She currently works at Merz Pharmaceuticals in Raleigh.
In the weeks leading up to the pageant, she has been preparing her wardrobe, participating in mock interviews and perfecting her talent, a tap dance to "The Boogie Bumper."
Her platform is the Adopt-a-Highway program, which she worked on locally in 2007 in memory of Citadel Cadet Forrest Pope, who also grew up in the Pikeville/Nahunta community. At 19, heading home for Thanksgiving break, he was killed in a car accident.
Miss Croom said she worked with his family on the project and has enlisted others to clean the two-mile stretch on NorAm Road, where a sign pays tribute to Pope.
"After winning Miss Goldsboro, I felt like that was something I was doing in the community for someone that had also been part of this community," she said. "My goal if I become Miss North Carolina, is to create a new Adopt-a-Highway program in every county, 100 new programs."
In addition to the support of family and friends, she said she has been blessed to have a good team behind her in the Miss Goldsboro organization.
"One of the biggest things that helped me after I won, was they sat me down and asked, 'What do you want out of this because this is your experience. If you want to win, we'll help you win. If you want to just enjoy being Miss Goldsboro, then we'll make sure that you have that great experience,''' she said.
Her response, she said, was "a little bit of both," especially since this marks her second time going to the state contest.
Ultimately, she is putting her best foot forward with the goal of winning, she says. But that can be defined in a number of ways.
"I want to be competitive and if winning means that I bring the Miss North Carolina crown home then that's great but to me winning could also just mean that I went knowing that I did everything that I possibly could to prepare for it," she said. "To be able to come back and still be able to represent Goldsboro for the rest of the year, if I don't win, to me that's just as special because it's my hometown."
The Miss North Carolina pageant will be held Saturday evening in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium at 7 p.m. It will not be televised but can be seen on the organization's website, www.missnc.org. Tickets for the preliminary nights and finals are also available this year from Ticketmaster.
The public can also weigh in and choose the People's Choice candidate, by going online and hitting "like" on Miss Croom's video. The contestant with the most votes becomes the 11th member of the Top 11.
Well-wishers can send mail to her at Miss N.C. Pageant, Casey Croom, Miss Goldsboro, William Peace University, 15 E. Peace Street, Raleigh, N.C. 27604.
Two other women with local ties will also be part of the festivities this year.
Isabella Gaines from Wilmington, the current Miss Goldsboro Outstanding Teen, will be vying for the state crown, which will be handed out Saturday afternoon and announced during the Miss North Carolina pageant that evening.
Helen Goldsby, who was born in Goldsboro and in 1995 won the title of Miss New York, will perform during the state pageant.
Her full lyric soprano voice has taken her to Broadway and performances that included the 1993 presidential inauguration of President Clinton and the memorial services of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and tennis pro Arthur Ashe. Organizers said she is the first and only singer to have performed inside the U.S. Supreme Court chambers.