Miss and Little Miss Fourth of July Pageant Winners and Court Announced

Saturday night, the Mt. Hope High School auditorium played host to the 2011 Miss and Little Miss Fourth of July Pageant. This year, 18-year-old Cassandra Guercia was crowned Miss Fourth of July and 9-year-old Peyton Perroni was crowned Little Miss Fourth of July. 

For the past few weeks, Miss and Little Miss contestants practiced dance routines, and rehearsed for the big show. The final scoring was comprised of scores from of one on one interviews with each of the judges, poise, and the answer to an on-stage question. 

Little Miss contestants were given questions weeks ago, where they were allowed to write the answer on an index card to use for the pageant. On the night of the pageant, Miss contestants were given a list of 30 questions back stage to study. When on stage, the contestants would pull a question out of a basket and be asked to answer on the spot.

"You feel so much better once you get that part over with," said veteran contestant Kristin Belmore, the first contestant to face the on-stage question for the evening. "It's easy after that." 

Nervous or not, all 15 of the Little Miss contestants and all 12 of the Miss contestants pulled through to the end. See the 2011 Miss and Little Miss Fourth of July Pageant winners below.

Little Miss Fourth of July

Miss Fourth of July

Editor's Note: Come back on Sunday for more photographs and videos from the pageant.