200 volunteers from across the state help make Miss Ohio Week special
Hundreds of volunteers from across the state help make the Mansfield-based Miss Ohio Scholarship Program special each June.
Tuesday morning, Dayna Sowers, 81, of Mansfield, was bustling about the lobby of the Renaissance Theatre, this year serving as a production hospitality after decades of serving as a chaperone to contestants.
Sowers said she likes volunteering at Miss Ohio because she likes the program and everybody she works with.
"All the chaperones and hostesses (host homes where the Miss Ohio contestants stay during Miss Ohio week) are great," she said.
Sowers 'wanted to stay with the program'
"I just felt I wanted to stay with the program, all the hostesses and chaperones get along so well," she said, adding that her new role is a good fit because it does not require her to drive at night.
Sowers was going over Tuesday's itinerary as someone brought donuts. She directed the young woman to take them to the stage crew.
Contestants were scheduled to have lunch at Mechanics Bank downtown on the square at 11:30 a.m. Dinner was to be brought to the theater by Gionino's Pizza.
The schedule Tuesday included a piano tuner at 8 a.m. and, weather permitting, a trip for contestants to Kelly's Dairy Bar & Mini Golf at 6:30 p.m.
Miss Ohio's Outstanding Teens were headed to Kingwood Center Gardens from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Watching rehearsals from the dark theatre, Vicki Perry of Mansfield said she has been a chaperone for 11 years, picking up two contestants from their host homes each morning and taking them back to the host home each night along with running them around to sites in Mansfield during the hectic week's schedule.
"I just haul the girls around," she said modestly. This year she has the opportunity to have the same contestant for two years in a row, Miss Talawanda Ivy Parker. "We help make sure they have everything they need."
Perry said she got started volunteering when friend Carla Wrasse invited her to help at Miss Ohio. The two friends have done catering for years. Wrasse, now contestant assistant, also arranges for meals for the contestants with the generosity of many local restaurants and businesses during the week.
"Ivy's told me how the Miss Ohio program helped her grow," Perry said, watching rehearsals from the theatre.
"Even if the girls don't win, they still get scholarship money," she said. Perry also is chaperone to Miss Oxford Ella Roberts. "I always tell them to have a good day and at night, to sleep well. At so many other state pageants the contestants stay in hotels."
The Slineys love helping at Miss Ohio
Volunteers Bruce and Julie Sliney of Mansfield began coming as spectators in 1977 or 1978 to the Miss Ohio shows.
"We might have missed a few years when our kids were real little," Bruce said from his theatre seat, watching rehearsals.
He said he and his wife knew the Herlihy family from St. Peter's Church and Sharon Herlihy said she needed some substitute chaperones and Julie began doing just that.
From there Julie, who was downstairs at the theater helping contestants change attire, became a permanent chaperone for at least the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, Bruce said, "I would just come and sit in the balcony by myself."
In 2015 Bruce offered to help at the back stage door when contestants were taking home their gowns and such on Saturday night.
That led to him helping with security for contestants in 2017.
"Julie's chaperoning and I do security," he said.
"When we were coming to this just as spectators, we used to tell people even if you don't like the idea of the 'beauty pageant,' the show is always phenomenal. And through this we've gotten to know performer and choreographer Dion Taylor and vocalist and vocal director and vocalist Connie (Cannada) and so many other people and it's a lot of fun," Bruce said.
Miss Ohio a family affair for Terri Herlihy-Clark
Co-producer and stage manager Teri Herlihy-Clark is behind the curtains running the show but she has been a volunteer since she was a little girl.
About 200 volunteers from throughout the state converge on the Miss Ohio Scholarship Program at the Renaissance Theatre every year, putting Mansfield in the limelight each June.
Among those volunteers are about 20 stage crew members, including sound and lighting individuals who take vacation for two weeks to volunteer at Miss Ohio pageant.
"Most of the actual crew I work with have been coming for 20 years," Herlihy-Clark said. Crew members call the two weeks their "family reunion."
Herlihy-Clark said the stage crew puts in lots of long hours — but there is time for fun.
"I call them my second family," she said in past years. "Our motto is, 'Making memories and having fun.' Like everything we do, the journey of the week just makes it all worth it."
Her mother, Sharon Herlihy, retired last year after 44 years of service to the pageant, but she is still helping out this week.
Sharon's late husband Paul was a longtime volunteer at the pageant. Sharon's granddaughter Katelyn Bednarz has grown up in the program and is helping this year as a stage technician along with Mansfield assistant fire Chief Jim Bishop, Mike Clark (Teri's husband) Sue Swinehart, Olivia Laux and Lucas Palm.
Tuesday morning, Gianna Gallo of Ontario was helping transport three of this year's Miss Ohio's Little Princesses to a spa day at Studio 19.
They were going for "a surprise," with one of the youngsters saying she hoped it was for a manicure.
Gallo said it is her first year volunteering.
The Miss Ohio's Outstanding Teen program is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Renaissance Theatre.
lwhitmir@gannett.com
419-521-7223
Twitter: @LWhitmir
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: From host homes to chaperones, it's all hands on deck at Miss Ohio
