Twelve contestants will battle for the crown of Miss Northwestern Lady of the Bracelet this weekend in the 60th annual pageant. The contest begins at 3 p.m. Sept. 23 in the Fine Arts Auditorium in the A.A. Fredericks Fine Arts Center.
As entertaining as it may be to witness the spectacle from an audience perspective, extensive work is done behind the scenes with contestants’ preparation and the stage itself, something Jaylon Lewis knows firsthand.
“A week after we crowned Maria Rome as the 59th Miss Lady of the Bracelet, I was already planning for this semester,” said Lewis, Miss LOB chairman for the Student Activities Board.
He said the hardest part is finding participants.
“You have a lot of girls on campus who don’t think they fit the mold of Miss LOB or have what it takes,” he said. “[But] in reality, you have what it takes; you just have to have the confidence to get out there.”
The winner receives more than a crown, sash and the bracelet from which the pageant gets its name; she also receives a scholarship award.
Miss LOB was not always a scholarship program. It originated as a beauty contest in 1958 in which contestants submitted photographs to a group in California who declared the prettiest girl of the group as the winner.
It was not until the early ’70s that Miss LOB moved away from its beauty-contest status and joined the Miss America Organization, a non-profit organization that calls itself “the nation’s leading advocate for women’s education and the largest provider of scholarship assistance to young women in the United States…”
Miss LOB is more than just a pretty face with a crown on her head and a bracelet on her wrist. She must embody the four points symbolized on the Miss America crown – style, scholarship, service and success – along with representing the university in a positive light.
“I look for a student leader who can represent this university with style and grace, with poise and professionalism,” said Yonna Pasch, director of Miss LOB. “It is a student leadership position that should be taken with high regard.”
