I've read everyones reports on Dawn Rochelle Productions and the Miss Latina World Pageant. I myself am a coordinator for a Pageant, however one not affiliated with Dawn Rochelle or the Miss Latina World Pageant. If everyone paid attention to the web site when they entered the pageant. They were competing to be the 2008 queen but the pageant is being held in 2007. If you look at the site know it shows the 8 Queen Melina Fernandez and they are asking you if you would like to compete in the 2008 pageant, making you the queen for 9. Confusing!
I have changed my pageant because of this. My pageant was held in November and we used to advertise it as 2008 queen. The girls that win are the queens for 2008 so this last November we crowned our 2008 Queen.
I was a little disappointed. NO, a lot!
I totally understand the name changes for Dawn's company because she did get divorced. I myself did the same thing. I changed my name back to my maiden name. I was disappointed in the pageant itself. As far as the production of it. The entry fee for my pageant is only $275. Mind you they are local contestants but still. We have 4 days of rehearsals and I take the contestants to special events set up by me for the city to meet with them.
My contestants are judged in 4 categories, interview with judges, physical fitness (which would be sports wear instead of swim suits) gown competition and on stage questions. The minute the final rehearsal starts there is absolutely no contact with any person other than a staff member of the pageant. If one of my staff members knows a contestant they are not allowed back stage. There are no family members seated directly behind the judges, these seats are blocked off and are used for visiting queens and special guest of the pageant.
What I saw in this pageant was disorganization. I felt that since it is considered an international pageant and has been going on for a while that it would have run more smoothly.
What I didn't like:
1. The fact that the pageant was moved from the 4th of July weekend to October.
I was told by a photographer from Las Vegas at an event I was at in Puerto Vallarta was that if the pageant was moved it was probably because they do not have a location for the pageant yet. I don't post my pageant until I have the location. It's something that is decided on before the current pageant is held. So that we can announce when and where the following pageant will be.
2. All items needed to be turned into the pageant before June because of a online contest they had for photogenic.
Here we were telling everyone that they needed to go online to vote at the pageant web site and you could not access the link to get to the site. I tried e-mailing and calling the phone numbers and web sites given me and no one would answer. I could only leave a message. I finally got a e-mail from Ilesett, who was Dawn's assistant (Just a note: I received an very nice e-mail from her stating that she is no longer with the company) stating that e-mails were sent out that the pageant had been moved and photogenic would be voted on closer to the pageant. This all made sense at the time. Later after we e-mailed everyone to vote, a $10 charge was placed on each vote anyone made. It was later stated that the money made from the voting would go toward the monies won by the winners.
3. The contestants were told that they would receive their crown and sash in the mail along with their handbook and ticket information and well as information regarding the hotel so that family members could rent rooms at a discounted price.
I don't remember anyone having their crown or sash when we arrived. They were handed out at a meeting the first day of the preliminaries. I didn't expect the crowns to be expensive ones. But a Bigger impact would have been for them to arrive at the airport with their crowns on their heads. This would cause people to ask why they were in Las Vegas. We were told a weeks before the pageant what hotel it was and the discount was about $50 a night. I happen to have a family member who could get us a bigger discount and I had two rooms. The total cost for my family to stay there was $1400.00 for the three days. We drove to Las Vegas.
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