Mundelein held its annual pageant recently at Mundelein High School and crowned the 2021 Miss, Junior Miss and Little Miss Mundelein.
Victoria Weaver, 16, won “Miss Mundelein,” Lia Kagan, 14, is this year’s “Junior Miss Mundelein” and Kiera Poutre, 8, is “Little Miss Mundelein.” The runner-ups in the Junior category were Addie Biegel, 13, and Chloe Banerjee, 14. In the youngest category, the runner-ups were Emma Benassi, 7, and Trinity Routledge, 9.
The pageant was held June 27.
“Miss Congeniality” was also awarded in the two younger groups, which is voted on by the contestants based on who they thought among them was the nicest and most outgoing, organizers explained. Trinity Routledge took home the award in the Little Miss category, and Lia Kagan won in the Junior Miss category.
The pageant is typically held in the days prior to the Mundelein Community Days festival, which is a weekend that includes a carnival, music, games and fireworks.
Betty Hurmis, one of the pageant directors, said part of the tradition is also to bid farewell to the previous year’s winner. Last year’s Miss Mundelein was Natalie Biegel, who Hurmis said with her win last year completed a three-peat — winning the crown all three pageant categories.
Hurmis said it was the first three-time win she’s had in the two decades she has worked with the pageant.
Hurmis said the pageant’s 11 contestants were each interviewed prior to the event, which is part of their final score. Once the event started, each contestant gave a speech to demonstrate their communication skills. Afterward, they each modeled a formal gown, which ties into a stage presence competition. This was capped off with a pop question, Hurmis said.
The Little Miss contestants were asked if they had a magical bike that could take them anywhere, where would they go? For the junior category, the girls were asked if they have a unique family tradition and to describe it. Weaver, the lone Miss Mundelein contestant, was asked if she could improve Mundelein in one way, what would she do and why?
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Afterward, the previous year’s winners presented a red rose to each of the new contestants, and they bid farewell.
Leading up to this year’s event, Hurmis said things ran smoother than last year. Some of the pageant activities have been truncated, and Hurmis said that, in part led, to the event not being broadcast as widely.
Specifically, businesses in the past have shown their support by donating prizes for the winners. Hurmis said last year, in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic, businesses weren’t in a position to offer such donations.
She said while things are better now than last year, pageant officials decided to not pursue donations again. However, some businesses reached out and still donated, Hurmis said.
“It was a lot better and it was a lot easier … but we still had some challenges,” Hurmis said.
One of the consequences of not soliciting donations was a lack of opportunity to promote the pageant, which Hurmis said impacted how many contestants there were.
Nevertheless, she said she was happy with how the event turned out. She noted the strong turnout of previous pageant winners across Lake County, describing those who compete in these pageants as having a sort of bond among themselves.
“It’s just been really an amazing and proud moment for me as a director to watch these young ladies that came in as Little Misses and they’ve grown to be such beautiful young ladies who are so involved in their community,” Hurmis said.