Nicolas Weissenberg
Staff Writer
This year at the Helotes Cornyval a new pageant winner was crowned. Junior Alyssa Owens became 2019’s Miss Helotes. Owens shared she worked hard to prepare and looks forward to spreading a positive message about Helotes with the community.
“One of the things that we did was we got together every Sunday and we practiced for 2 hours and so we would go over walking patterns which is like walking down the aisle for the different parts of the show being the fashion and then the evening gown and then we also practiced interview questions on stage and then also off stage interview questions that were held in the morning. We learned to dance and we performed that during the show too,” Owens said.
After all the hard work and dedication, she came out victorious. Winning a pageant is a big deal and it comes with its own set of responsibilities.
“Just being a good image for the younger kids because I know a lot of kids look up to me and I remember when I got crowned the little girls were just staring at me and I find it so cute, but one of the responsibilities has to be maintaining a good image for the Helotes community,” Owens said.
Being Miss Helotes involves being a good role model in the community and especially for the younger crowd. On top of responsibilities, skills can also be gained through a new experience such as winning a pageant.
“I’ve had to learn a lot of time management because during the Cornyval time I was gone for like 4 days and so after school I had to run that way and then after that I had to do homework so lots of time management. Also just talking with new people and being more social,” Owens said.
Through the pageant Alyssa learned how to manage her time better as well as socializing more and communicating with new people. Participating in a pageant requires some form of support whether it be from family, friends, or teachers.
“One of my biggest supporters has to be my parents for sure and my sister and then my best friend Tyreke because he helps me a lot and helps me be more confident in all that I do. It has to be him and then also my parents for sure because they do a lot for me, they helped me practice my interview questions and they helped me just get ready,” Owens said. With support from friends and family she was able to build enough confidence to become Ms.Helotes. With the newly gained title Miss Helotes, Alyssa wishes to accomplish her goal.
“As Ms.Helotes I’d like to bring more awareness to what Helotes actually is and how close a community we actually are because I feel like people outside of Helotes don’t really know like ‘oh well I know Helotes is a small town, but what do they do.’ Not a lot of people know what Cornyval is, not a lot of people know where Floore’s is and those are like really hot commodities within the Helotes community. So as Ms. Helotes I’d like to get the word out,” Owens said.
She wishes to spread the Helotes culture beyond the city’s limits.