By Ryan Smith
Meadville Tribune
MEADVILLE —
For Sue Pardee, pageantry has held a lifelong allure.
“Every little girl wants to be a princess,” the Meadville resident and businesswoman said recently. “When I was growing up in the ’70s, there were some kids of color (who participated in pageants), but not many,” and at that time, being the youngest in a family of four, “it just wasn’t feasible.”
These days, though, she’s following that dream — and looking for the community’s support in achieving it.
Currently holding the title of 2010 Mrs. Pennsylvania American Dream, Pardee is readying herself to travel to New Orleans to participate in next month’s National American Dream Pageant. There, she’ll represent Pennsylvania in the pageant’s Mrs. Division.
“This is going to be a lot of fun for me,” said Pardee, who has years of behind-the-scenes experience working in pageants and similar events and runs the show at Value Clothing, the designer clothing store her “very supportive” husband, Craig, owns at the Downtown Mall in Meadville.
Pardee’s most recent endeavors include directing Meadville’s first ToolCity Pageant and, earlier this year, co-organizing “Celebrating Life in Style,” a fashion show that featured local women who are or have been undergoing treatment for various forms of cancer and benefited the American Cancer Society.
Along similar lines, her platform for the upcoming National American Dream Pageant is “Celebrating the Life of the Cancer Patient, not Dwelling on the Disease.” She said she hopes to not only encourage cancer patients, but also those around them, to feel valuable despite — and beyond — the diagnosis.
“Far too often the person fighting cancer becomes known by the disease they are fighting and the valuable person they are gets lost in the struggle,” she said, adding she feels her involvement in the pageant and the message she’ll share there “is, to me, a ministry of encouragement. There’s a lot more to this than just glitz and glamour.”
The pageant is Aug. 18 to 21. The Mrs. Division of the all-adults pageant is open to married women who are 21 or older. Pardee and other contestants will be judged based on their performances in interview, fitness, evening gown and on-stage question phases of competition.
Pardee said like her, “most of these women have children, careers and families.” The competiton’s “fun, and it’s not so serious you have to be cut-throat and gossipy” about it.
Pardee continues seeking community sponsors and donations to help offset some of what she said is roughly $2,000 in related costs.
“I want to represent Meadville as well as Pennsylvania,” she said, and “I would like to really represent us well.”
Ryan Smith can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at rsmith@meadvilletribune.com.
You can help
2010 Mrs. Pennsylvania American Dream Susan J. Pardee of Meadville is traveling to New Orleans to participate in the National American Dream Pageant on Aug. 18 to 21 as the Pennsylvania representative in the Mrs. Division, and she’s looking for the community’s support in getting there.
Pardee’s platform is “Celebrating the Life of the Cancer Patient, not Dwelling on the Disease.”
Donations to help Pardee get to the national competition may be sent to PA American Dream Pageant, c/o Susan Pardee, 920 Water St. Meadville, Pa. 16635. Make checks payable to PA American Dream Pageant.
-More information: Call Pardee at 336-1035.
