Miss Mini-Cassia Scholarship Pageant
PROJECT DATES: 1975 – xxxx | ROTARY AREA OF FOCUS: Supporting Education & Promoting Peace
Burley Rotary Club President (1974-1975) Peter Snow w
CINCO DE MAYO CELEBRATION
Bridging cultures by building goodwill and trust!
A long history of empowering young women in our communities
The Miss Mini-Cassia Scholarship Pageant was first held during the 1975 Christmas Holidays season at the Ponderosa Convention Center to a capacity crowd. The event would go on to complete 22+ more years and became a highly anticipated event each year.
The Burley Rotary Club’s decision to start the event began when Burley Rotary Club President (1974-1975) Peter Snow began to search for a project that would allow the club to generate funds in order to provide scholarships to students in the area. Robert Hamblen, a fellow Rotarian was an organist for several pageants around the state as well as a judge on the Miss America Preliminary Pageants list. With those connections, Mr. Hamblen knew that the Miss Idaho Scholarship Pageant Board was interested in re-establishing a pageant in the Minidoka and Cassia County area. The purpose of those pageants was to promote excellence in young ladies and provide an opportunity for them to display their talents and gain experience through competition. The local pageant would be a preliminary to the Miss Idaho and ultimately the Miss America pageants.
The idea of producing a Miss Mini-Cassia Pageant was presented to the members of the club and accepted. All the proceeds generated beyond the scholarships that would be awarded to the contestants would be given to High School students in the two county area.
At the time, the Miss America Pageant system was the largest provider of scholarships for young women in the world, giving over $5 million per year!
After the huge success of the first year, it was decided to move the event to the Burley High School Auditorium in order to accommodate the crowd.
That first year at the Burley High School, De Nelson (manager of the Ore-Ida Foods plant) arranged for their shop to construct a large lighted ramp to extend part way through the center of the auditorium allowing every person in the house an excellent view of the contestants.
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