MOUNT VERNON — Rotary International hosted a luncheon for Ohio’s Junior Miss contestants on Tuesday at The Alcove.
Cheri Butcher, contestant coordinator, said The Alcove will be the venue for a “Friends of OJM Gathering” on Friday evening following the show, for anyone who has been involved with Ohio’s Junior Miss program during the 35 years it has been held in Mount Vernon.
“We are pleased that Mount Vernon is the home of Ohio’s Junior Miss,” she told the audience. “By the end of this week, we will have awarded more than $17,000 in scholarships. Scholarships is what we’re all about.”
Brittany Marlowe, Vinton County’s Junior Miss from New Plymouth — a town she said is so small it doesn’t have a traffic light — was asked if she was homesick.
“I’m not,” she said. “I’m having a blast. I’m not even thinking about home.”
Marlowe also praised her host family, Amy and Brian Ferguson.
“Although it’s only Tuesday,” she said, “I already know they will always have a special place in my heart.”
Warren County’s Junior Miss, Krista Palmer, said her school, Kings High School, is near King’s Island Amusement Park.
“We can hear the screams from the Son of the Beast roller coaster,” she said, “but I don’t really notice it except at soccer games when the national anthem is playing.”
The 18 contestants took turns answering questions they were given a few moments before.
Sarah Hohman, Central Knox County Junior Miss, who will attend Capital University, responded to the question of what she had experienced this week for the first time by speaking of her host family, Kelly and Caroline Schermerhorn and their children.
“My host family has six kids,” Hohman said. “At home, there’s only my brother and me, so this is my first time living with 10 people all in one house.”
Allen County Junior Miss Diana Weiser, who will attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was asked what might be happening at her home in her absence.
“My brother is 13,” she said, “and he has told me many times that as soon as I leave for college, he’s going to take over my room. So I assume he’s getting a head start on that.”
Today’s events include morning and afternoon rehearsals, a luncheon at Country Club Retirement Campus and dress rehearsal this evening.
