The 66th Miss Georgia Scholarship Pageant begins Wednesday. The 40 contestants will have been placed into three groups and will compete in swimsuit, talent and evening wear in rotating groups in the preliminaries Wednesday through Friday in the Bill Heard Theatre inside RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, 900 Broadway.
The finals are Saturday. The competition begins at 7:30 p.m. each night at the Heard Theatre. Tickets for Wednesday and Thursday cost $30. Friday is $60, and Saturday is $80.
New this year in entertainment are hip-hop dancers from South Carolina called UNEEK-EFX. DJ LuCa will spin tunes before each show and during intermission to get the crowd going.
Janet Roddy, a long-time Miss Georgia board member, is the director/producer of the show for the third year.
What have I learned in the three years? Ive learned I dont want to do this again. You have to be a total idiot to do this, she joked. Seriously, what Ive learned is that I have so many good people working around me. They know what to do. I dont have to do anything because they make me look good.
Shes assisted by another long-time board member, Barbara Motos, and this year, has a co-producer, Michael Ruddell of Atlanta, who works for Michael Blair Productions. Ruddell has been a co-host for several years including this year and has been a featured vocalist as well.
Ruddell will be working with Miss Georgia 1998 April Brinson Slaughenhoup.
One of the judges will be a familiar face Miss Georgia 1997 Candice Little Wickersham, who has been working as a television news anchor, including a stint at WRBL-TV 3. Shes now a stay-at-home mother with daughter, Willow. She joins four other judges this year.
