By Cherie Ronayne

Holy sashaying sashes! Worcester County has some hot chicks with talent who are ready to put their best up against other Massachusetts beauties.

It’s pageant time and thankfully Miss MA contestants are adults, so the creepiness of babies with bouffant hairdos as featured on TLC’s Toddler’s in Tiaras is nowhere to be found, but the passionate commitment to talent routines and beauty secrets is everywhere.

On Fri., July 10 and Sat., July 11, the 2009 Miss Massachusetts Scholarship Pageant, the official preliminary to Miss USA, will take place at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester (For ticket information, go to www.thehanovertheatre.org.).

Friday, July 10 is the preliminary event; all contestants will compete in the Talent, Eveningwear, Onstage Questions and Swimsuit portions of the competition.

Saturday, July 11 is the final night of competition. The top ten contestants will compete in Talent, Eveningwear and Swimsuit. The evening culminates with the crowning of the new Miss Massachusetts, who will compete for the title of Miss America in Las Vegas next January.

So what possesses talented young women to enter pageants when there isn’t a crazed stage-mother behind the scenes, pushing and prodding, applying fake lashes and spray-on tan?

The current Miss MA, Alicia Zitka of West Springfield, says that she originally entered the pageant as a student at UMass Amherst to earn scholarship money. There are significant funds awarded to winners: since 1954 when Miss America winner Bess Myerson received the first scholarship award of $5,000, the Miss America Organization has provided more than $100 million in educational grants, making it in the world’s largest provider of scholarships exclusively for women. Last year alone, in-kind and cash scholarships for contestants at all levels of competition totaled more than $30 million.

Kristin Gauvin-Neithercut, Miss MA 2005, echoes that interest ~ as a winner, she was able to pay off student loans ~ no small feat these days. But not all contestants are after the winnings ~ Lauren Mangano, Miss Worcester 2006, entered simply because she wanted to dance. After competing, she was able to parlay her love for dance into running her own successful dance school and also currently directs the Miss Worcester pageant.

So what is it about the Swimsuit portion of the pageant that strikes fear in the hearts of all average women who would rather wear an oversized muumuu to the beach and sweat like a trucker than bare it [almost] all?

Says Lauren Mangano, “It’s all about confidence. I worked hard for that swimsuit body so I got up on stage and worked it.” Our current Miss Worcester, Jill Lawton, who will be competing in Miss MA in July (and is also a pageant veteran since the age of 12) agrees that preparation is a must. She spends 1.5 – 2 hours at the gym, runs 5 miles and does 1300 crunches ~ every day.  That routine gives her the confidence she needs for that swimsuit walk.

So, sure, these winners worked out hard (and dieted, of course) for weeks, but are there any insider tricks? We were able to coax one out of Lauren: there’s an item known to pageant insiders as “Butt Glue,” a spray-on adhesive that keeps your suit in place while you’re strutting your stuff in stilettos (Jill Lawton agrees that the famed Butt Glue is THE trick for eliminating the dreaded on-stage wedgie! Who knew even hot chicks worried about wedgies?).

OK, so now we know how they manage the wedgies.  What I want to know is how they manage to walk in those 5 inch stilettos!

Come to the 2009 Miss Massachusetts Scholarship Pageant on Friday, July 10 and Saturday, July 11 to find out ~ and to find out who will be crowned the new Miss Massachusetts and go on to represent our state in competition for the title of Miss America in Las Vegas next January.