What Does This Mean for Contestants?

In 1989, the Miss America Organization founded the platform concept, which requires each contestant to choose an issue about which she cares deeply and that is of relevance to our society. Once chosen, Miss America and the state titleholders use their stature to address community-service organizations, business and civic leaders, the media and other about their platform issues. This legacy will continue.

Now, in addition to her personal platform, Miss America will also be a goodwill ambassador for Children’s Miracle Network. This new national platform will provide the Miss America Organization the opportunity to not only raise funds for Children’s Miracle Network, but also to raise additional funds for the Miss America Scholarship Foundation, thus maximizing exposure, awareness and impact for both organizations.

What does this mean for contestants?

Service, one of the four points of the crown, has always been important to contestants striving for the opportunity to be Miss America. To build on this, contestants competing at any level in the Miss America system will now be expected to raise a minimum of $100 to support Children’s Miracle Network and the Miss America Scholarship Fund. This is not an entrance fee, but rather a new service requirement to participate in Miss America sponsored pageants.

The contestant must submit to each local director proof of her registration and qualification. She can either do this by making a copy of her personal qualification report from the CMN web site or if there is not sufficient time to mail checks to have posted to the CMN site she can make copies of donations made by individuals or businesses before mailing in to CMN. Please see form to accompany paper checks.

Paper checks are acceptable. The check needs to be made out to Children's Miracle Network and either on the memo line or a note attached to the check, the contestant name and pageant name. This is the only way we can track the donated amounts to the contestants. All contestants need to take 5 minutes and register so when we get paper checks we can credit their website.These paper checks can be sent directly to CMN by the contestant.It is the responsibility of the contestant.

The contestants have to register for the pageant title they are competing for (not their current title if a local titleholder). This is how we track donations made for them. See next page for form to be used when submitting a check.

Even if no donations have been secured, a qualification report still has to be made to prove registration. Failure to document the $100 minimum for each local will result in the contestant not being eligible to compete.

Paper check mail in form:

Children’s Miracle Network & Miss America Information for: ___(State)

Donor Name: ______Phone #: (_____) ______-______

Address: ______

City: ______State: ______Zip Code: ______

Email: ______

Contestant Name: ______

Pageant: ______State: ______

Donation Amount: $ ______.____ Check Number: ______

Checks made payable to: Children’s Miracle Network

*Please include Contestant Name on check (ex. on memo line)

Mail this info and check to: Children’s Miracle Network

Miss America Scholarship Accounting

4525 South 2300 East

Salt Lake City, UT84117

Attach check here…..

Registration Instructions for Local Pageant Contestants

Congratulations on becoming involved with the world’s largest provider of scholarship assistance for young women. Last year the Miss America Organization and its state and local organizations made available more than $43 million in scholarship assistance to young women.

In 2007, the Miss America Organization partnered with Children’s Miracle Network – an alliance of children’s hospitals – to develop a a National Platform. Children’s Miracle Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals across North America, Europe, and Australia. The 170 Children’s Miracle Network hospitals provide the finest medical care, life-saving research and preventative education to help over 17 million kids each year overcome diseases and injuries of every kind.

How to Register as a Contestant of a Local Pageant

Each contestant is asked to register online at At the right-hand side of the page about half way down is a button that says “New Contestant – CLICK HERE.” Click on that button and you’re well on your way to competing in the Miss America system. You will then see a screen like this:

Fill out the mandatory fields (marked by an asterisk *) and click REGISTER at the bottom of the page.

Choose from the drop-down list of pageants a local pageant….

Your fundraising goal is automatically raised $100 every time you choose another local pageant, up to $400. You may increase your goal to any amount over the minimum required amount.

Minimum Fundraising Goal for each Pageant

Local: $100 State: $250 National: $500

i.e. Registration for 3 local pageants requires a minimum goal of $300

Automatic Qualification Status: Raise $400 or more at the local level and you are qualified for all local pageants. Once you have entered the pageants you plan to enter, you will see the pageant(s) listed.

Send Emails

Click on “Send Emails” on the left hand side and enter email addresses to send to your friends and family. Tip: send one email to yourself to your own email address, then when you get that email from the system, add a personal note to that email and forward that email to as many as you like within your own email system. You could ask for $5, $10, $20 or whatever they can give to both great causes.

It is as simple as that. You may track your progress and see how you are doing. The more emails you send, the more funds you raise for both of these great organizations. Yes, these funds are for both entities – the donations help increase the future scholarship fund at the Local, State and National Levels, as well as go to supporting the children’s hospitals.

Please take a few minutes to register for the pageant in which you will be competing at:

If you have questions please contact:

Kirk Ryder

Director, Field Marketing / Liaison to Children’s Miracle Network

Miss America Organization, Las Vegas Office

(702) 785-9199 Office (310) 251-2026 Mobile

Cynthia Nay and Brandon Elfring

Children's Miracle Network

4525 South 2300East

Salt Lake City, UT84117

(801) 214-7400

Eleven lucky steps to registering for the National Platform:

1. Fill in all the data lines that have an asterisk at the beginning of them. All the data.

2. You have choices as shown in the dropdown boxes where it asks you to “Select …..”.

3. The Pageant State is where you are competing in a pageant.

4. The Pageant cycle is 2012. (These pageants have winners that will go to the State 2011 pageant and would compete in the 2012 Miss America Pageant.)

5. Title Competing For: is the title of the pageant you are currently, for this specific pageant, competing for. You are asked to return to this like when you enter the next pageant and change this name to the pageant that you are then competing for. You may have multiple pageants that you enter.

6. Your expected minimum goal is $100 for each local pageant level but you may select a higher goal. This minimum local pageant goal of $100 is for the National Platform which is very similar to the personal platform that you may have.

7. Fill in everything with an * in from of the line.

8. Upload a picture (if you want to, this is optional).

9. Then click on Save to save and file the data.

10. You will get to a page that tells you that you have saved the data.

11. Next, click on “Send emails” on the left hand side and enter email addresses to send to your friends and family. (Hint: send one email to yourself at your own email address, then when you get that email from the system, add a personal note to that email and forward this email to as many as you like within your own email system. This way you will know who you sent the email to.)

The funds raised are under your name and roll-over to qualify you for future pageants within this Pageant Cycle. For example, if you raise $500 then you are pre-qualified for 5 local pageants. But, for each pageant you compete in you must update your profile on MissAmerica4Kids.org to reflect that newly entered pageant name. If you win local pageant #2, then the $300 excess ($100 was used for each of the 2 local pageants leaving $300 left over) is applied to the State Pageant minimum goal of $250 and you have already met that goal and are qualified for the State Pageant automatically.

So, please take 5 minutes and go to MissAmerica4Kids.org and register for the pageant you will be competing in. If you elect to compete in additional local pageants simply return to MissAmerica4Kids.org and update your pageant you are competing in (select the next pageant you are entering). Good luck and enjoy the priceless experience you will have.

Children’s Miracle Network/Miss America Organization

Donation Roll-Over Information

Donations, in excess of the minimum amount required for each pageant, collected by a contestant, may be rolled-over for use in multiple Local pageants to State & National pageants within a pageant cycle. A pageant cycle starts with the Local pageant that leads to State, which leads to the National pageant for a title leading to Miss America within that pageant cycle. When a contestant starts a new pageant cycle at the Local level (which could involve several Local Pageants for that cycle), no funds are rolled over from the prior pageant cycle (Miss America title) and everyone is at the same starting place for fundraising.

Local Level:

All contestants must register at MissAmerica4Kids.org. Even though a contestant may have been involved in the Miss America Pageant system last pageant cycle (leading to a State 2007 title), a new ID is needed when the contestant enters their first Local Pageant of the Pageant Cycle. That ID chosen for the first Local Pageant will be used by that contestant throughout the pageant season for that pageant cycle. DO NOT create a new ID for each pageant within a pageant cycle.

Any donations collected, in excess of the $100 for Pageant 1, will automatically roll-over into the contestants excess account and will be used toward their fundraising goal for Pageant 2. Any excess funds from Pageant 2 will automatically roll-over and will be used toward their fundraising goal for Pageant 3, etc.

Contestants will still need to raise a minimum of $100 per Local pageant entered and must register on line for each local pageant entered by going to MissAmerica4Kids.org and logging into their CMN personal page and selecting the new pageant for the title that they are then currently competing for. When changing the “Pageant competing for:” do not change your ID.

If the contestant does not go on to compete at the State level, any excess funds over the $100 per pageant entered will be equally distributed among all of the local pageants the contestant competed in.

State Level:

Should the contestant win a Local pageant, any excess donations will automatically roll-over and be applied to the $250 minimum required goal for the State pageant.

Should the state contestant raise funds ($250 or more) while competing at the State level and registered for the state pageant, any roll-over of funds from the Local level that was used to initially qualify her for the state pageant, will revert back or return to the Local pageant accounts credit, if the contestant does not go on to the national level to use the excess donations to qualify for the national pageant. So if the contestant had raised $350 at a local and won the first local then she would be automatically qualified for the state pageant (with the excess of the $250) but if she raised another $250 while competing for the state pageant, then the full $350 would remain as credit under the local pageant account and be used to figure what the local gets in scholarship funds.

National Level:

Should the contestant win the State pageant, any excess donations (from local & state levels) will automatically roll-over and be applied towards the $500 minimum required goal for the National pageant.

Like the State Level, should the now National contestant raise funds ($500 or more) while competing at the National level, the initial roll-over of funds from the Local &/or State level will revert back to the account of origin.