Miss Connecticut Stressing Scholarship as the Real Pageant Message

Miss Connecticut was in town on Tuesday to pitch the upcoming Miss Greater Rockville Pageant and she kept stressing three key elements.

With the Miss America organization firmly behind the event, it is about the scholarship and charity as much as beauty.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about this organization and the so-called beauty pageants," Morgan Amarone said in a presentation at Tuesday's Town Council meeting. "Miss America - and Miss Connecticut - are about a lot more."

Amarone outlined several factors:

• Communications skills. She said she learned a lot about public speaking and things like going to a job interview and communicating with peers through her involvement with the pageants.

• Scholarship. She is currently working toward an advanced degree in health care management at Quinnipiac University through the financial assistance earned with her title.

• A cause. She is active in cancer victim advocacy and spent a good portion of the day at the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford before heading to Vernon.

"Being Miss Connecticut has allowed me to have a platform," she said. "This is a full-time job and I spent 40 hours a week working with something I am passionate about."

More than $1,000 in scholarships and prizes will be awarded to the the titleholder, runner-up and Miss Congeniality winners in the upcoming Miss Greater Rockville Pageant.

The event is scheduled for March 17 at Rockville High School.

Young women 17 to 24 who are graduating from high school this year or receiving their GED by July 1 are eligible to apply. Contestants must be U.S. citizens and residents of Connecticut (or work or go to school in the state full-time).

Scholarships can be applied to student loans, Organizer Pamela DiDio said.

The Rockville Community Alliance, a local community service group, has partnered with the state level of the Miss America Organization to sponsor the event, DiDio said.

The Miss Greater Scholarship Competition will be accepting applications through March 2. Girls interested in applying can contact DiDio at pamdidio@att.net or by calling (860) 646-5320.

Potential contestants can e-mail pageant@RockvilleCommunityAlliance.org or go to http://www.rockvillect.org/missgreaterrockville.