Miss East Cascades looks to elevate young women

MOSES LAKE — Young women from Grant County are invited to try out for the Miss East Cascades scholarship program, the first step toward Miss America, said Miss East Cascades Executive Director Deloma Sherwood. 

“We hold annual competitions at the local level, and then hopefully have two to six to eight months to prepare our title holders to go on to compete at Miss Washington in probably late June to early July,” she said. “And then whoever wins the Miss Washington gets to attend Miss America and represent the state.” 

Sherwood said that Miss East Cascades is a local franchise of the Miss Washington program, one of 14 in the state. According to the Miss Washington website, there are three franchises for local areas in eastern Washington — in Yakima, Tri-Cities and Spokane — and Miss East Cascades covers Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, Kittitas and Grant counties. It’s combined with the Miss Greater Wenatchee program, which was revived in 2023 after a 31-year hiatus, Sherwood said. 

Any woman between the ages of 19 and 27 who lives, works or attends school in one of those counties is eligible, Sherwood said. As the title “Miss” would suggest, contestants may not be married, but beginning this year divorced women are eligible if they have no dependents, she added. 

This year’s competition is at Wenatchee High School on March 9, 2025, with mandatory rehearsals and private interviews with judges the day before, according to the Miss East Cascades website.  

The private interviews are held with a panel of five to seven judges, Sherwood said, and the scores are collected in sealed, secret ballots and held for the competition itself, which begins with a production number.  

The first phase of the competition is a stage conversation, Sherwood said, where each contestant is asked a question about her platform, called a Community Service Initiative, or CSI. Then the contestants vie in a fitness and health competition. That fitness section, Sherwood said, replaced the old swimsuit event that so many people associate with the pageant. Both Miss Washington and Miss America did away with the swimsuit competition in 2018, according to the Miss Washington website.  

“Since 1977, I have pushed and pushed state (franchises) and Miss America to get rid of the swimsuit (competition),” Sherwood said. “However, the job of a local or a state titleholder can be very demanding, so we thought there should be some form of a fitness (requirement) involved.” 

The next phase is a 90-second talent presentation, followed by an evening gown walk. This is to demonstrate style, Sherwood explained; it’s not a beauty pageant. 

“Miss America has worked really hard (to get away from that)” Sherwood said. “We understand that a lot of people love the glamor of pageants. We include doses of that, but the pillars of the Miss America program and Miss East Cascades are service — which is huge; we really push service and to be a leader in your community. And then style, success and scholarship are the other three pillars of the Miss America and Miss East Cascades program.”

There are as many talents as there are contestants. Music, dance and theater are popular ones, but contestants have shown their talents by dribbling basketballs to music, speed painting, performing a science experiment and sewing a dress, according to the Miss East Cascades website. Likewise, CSIs are a wide-open field and contestants have a lot of options, Sherwood said.

“Last year’s Miss East Cascades' CSI was the importance of training to know what to do in the event of a heart attack, how to apply CPR,” Sherwood said. “Now she works as a nurse at (Columbia Valley Community Health).” 

The scholarships aren’t a set amount, according to the Miss East Cascades website; the amount of money available depends on the donations and sponsorships in a given year and a contestant doesn’t have to be the winner to earn a significant scholarship amount. 

“There are so many deserving young women who come from families that don't qualify for additional scholarships because they make a little bit too much, but then they don't make enough to outright pay for all their college education,” Sherwood said. 

More information and registration forms can be found at www.misseastcascades.com. 

    Miss East Cascades 2012 Connie Morgan crowns 2013 winner Lacey Ebert.
  

    Miss East Cascades 2013 Lacey Ebert passes the crown on to her successor, Ashley Lowers.