PATEANT MARKS FIVE YEARS WITH `LITTLE MISS' TITLE

The annual Miss Riverfest Queen Contest celebrates its fifth year this weekend, which also will feature the first Little Miss Riverfest Contest.

Riverfest '92 will be held Friday and Saturday in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Both the older and younger contestants will be competing on stage at the same time. The competition begins at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Both age groups will perform a stage number. After that, the little girls model party wear and then older girls model party wear, said Carole Yount, chairman of the contest.

The older girls also are rated on interviews held with judges Saturday morning. The younger girls won't have an interview segment, but they do have a casual wear modeling event at West Park Mall at 1 p.m. Saturday at Center Stage. The older girls will be presented as candidates but will not be competing.

Contestants will be judged on poise and personality, speaking ability and overall appearance, said Yount.

The Little Miss Riverfest contest is open to any girl born in 1987, to commemorate the year the Miss Riverfest Queen Contest was started.

To be eligible for the Miss Riverfest competition, a contestant must be a high school student as of May 1, single, have no children, and must have a C grade-point average or above.

Yount said there will be a stage production this year involving all 19 of the Miss Riverfest and all seven of the Little Miss Riverfest contestants.

Yount said, "The stage production is very simple: it will be an introduction type of thing with very upbeat music."

On Friday contestants vote for Miss Congeniality, who will be named during the competition Saturday.

For the Little Miss contestants, the equivalent of Miss Congeniality is the Personality Plus award. "This is the child who the judges feel has the most personality," Yount said.

Because there are only seven contestants in the Little Miss Riverfest contest, the normal number of winners and alternates would outnumber the rest of the entrants. Special considerations were made for this, said Yount.

"The little girls all will get a trophy," said Yount, "with a special trophy to the top two and Personality Plus winners. We've made some adjustments so that no one is left out."

Last year's winner, Julie Schoeninger of Marion, Ill., has been lending her experience and support to this year's pageant. Yount said, "She has been working with girls and helping them with the production number and just helping where she can.

"Helping out with the following year's queen contest is the queen's biggest responsibility. We haven't gotten Cape used to idea of using a contest queen for different things."

Among other duties, Schoeninger will crown the new Miss Riverfest queen and will be in the parade with the young queen contestants.

LuAnn Domek of Arnold, emcee of the pageant, is Miss St. Louis 1990. Yount said, "LuAnn holds several pageant titles and is used to on-stage productions."

Community support for the pageant has contributed to its success. "We probably have $700 to $800 in donations from the community," Yount said. "The people we've asked have supported us this year. It makes our competition that much better.

"We had a lot of requests of girls of different ages," Yount said. "There was a lot of response from different age groups, so we may do it with girls of different ages next year."

Yount is one of several volunteers who have made the pageant possible. Domek, Lisa Williams, Peggy Bollinger and Bonnie McCullough also volunteered their time to help with the contests.

Yount said the St. Louis Professional Dancers and Cheerleaders also will perform during the Saturday evening contest.