VCBA Salutes The Miss Valley Center Pageant



The Royal Court at Bates Nut Farm during the Halloween season: Front to back: Lesly Pensado, Junior Miss VC 2020; Mackenzie Fiske, JM 1st Princess 2020; Shelby Rattray, JM 2nd princess 2020; Lacey Bainbrigde, Miss 1st princess 2020 and Alexis Doria, Miss VC 2020.

This week the Valley Center Business Association salutes our partner, the Miss VC Pageant Association.

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be a Miss Valley Center Pageant contestant?  Have you thought about how much work and time it would take, plus the confidence you would need to stand up in front of hundreds of your friends, family and community to be judged?  

Now, for a moment imagine you have the huge responsibly in preparing not only one, but multiple young women competing for the title.  It is an awesome responsibility to make sure girls walk with confidence and poise onto that stage. To prepare them to feel like the amazing young women you have taught to walk, talk, and be who they are with respect and dignity.  

This is the job of the President of the Miss Valley Center Pageant.  That job has belonged to President and pageant director Debra Jockinsen for the last 15 years, along with her husband Eric Jock-insen.  

The Miss Valley Center Pageant has its roots in Valley Center, going back about 51 years.  Over the years the Pageant has been a staple in the community.  As seen two years ago when the pageant invited all its past participants to attend the event with the theme, “The Past Present and Future.”   Many of the past contestants attended and shared their stories and successes of the past pageants.  

“The girls come to us from all walks of life, they decide they want to try something new,” said Eric Jockinsen.  “Maybe they come for the experience or the scholarship money.  But whatever they come for it is our job to empower them, to build confident young women who can walk into a room with their head held high, speak confidently in an interview and make a real difference in the world.” 

Debra & Eric Jockinsen of the Miss Valley Center Pageant organization. Photo by Lenny Kerbs

The Jockinsens began their involvement in the Miss Valley Center Pageant in about 2002.  Debra Jockinsen was part of the Valley Center Women’s club.  One of the club members, Georgina Thomas and her husband Tommy were greatly involved with the pageant. The pageant at that time was run by the Women’s Club.  Mrs. Thomas asked Debra to help her out with the production of the pageant, and it was a perfect fit.  By 2005 the Women’s club had turned over the pageant to the Jockinsens.  Over the years, the Jockinsens’ board of directors has helped make the pageant run like a well-oiled machine.  

“Each board member has a part they do.  Everyone has businesses or jobs in the fields they help in.  They all set aside the time needed each year to volunteer their services to help prepare these young ladies,” said Debra. 

The current board is Theresa Allen, Pam Postuma, Crimson Hamilton, Heather Williams, and Lisa Miller.  Preparing the girls is a long intense process. It requires the girls to attend practices for five hours a week for about nine weeks. 

The girls are given assignments like writing an essay, preparing a project that represents them, writing a speech, learning how to properly interview, answering impromptu questions, and learning a choreographed group dance. The girls are not judged on their group dance performance.  

“I tell the girls it is my job to make sure they walk onto that stage and have all the confidence to be up there and not embarrass themselves; that is my promise to them,” said Debra.  

The Miss Valley Center Royal Court serving at the St Patrick’s Day Chili Cookoff earlier this year.

It is a lot to accomplish in nine weeks with a lot of different young women coming from all sorts of different family backgrounds.  

“The end goal is always to give the young women the confidence and ability to be all they can be.  To walk into an interview, or a new job, or speak to an audience with complete confidence,” said Eric.  

The pageant director added, “To see you helped do something that you put so much into and actually help make the world a little bit better is very rewarding.”

This past year was a challenging year for all traditional events—with the concerns of the pandemic affecting all of our normal day-to-day lives.  The pageant that is typically held in March was postponed until August.  It was modified and the participants were finally able to perform what they had trained and prepared so many months before.   The new court that was crowned in August 2020, will now reign until 2022, where hopefully the traditional schedule will be able to resume under the normal guidelines.  

The amazing part about all that the Jockinsens do here, is that they really do change these young women’s lives.  

The scholarships awarded can be used to go to any accredited school once they complete their reign.  The scholarship is only one of the rewards.  The long-term rewards are countless for every young lady who chooses to be a part of this program:  Just having the confidence to speak to people, the ability to present yourself in a professional way, the ambition of looking forward to goals for education or business, or successfully running your own family.    

Each of these goals are possible for all the participants. To that end, each participant is a  winner.  

This is possible thanks to the dedication and commitment of the Jockinsens and the entire Miss Valley Center Pageant board. The Miss Valley Center Pageant is non-profit organization, 501C(4).  If you’d like to find out how you can donate to the Miss Valley Center Pageant, or be a future contestant, you can go to their Facebook page for more information along with their mission statement:  www.missvalleycenterpageant.com/ or contact Debra Jockinsen at 760-751-1051 or email at missvalleycenter@gmail.com.

 

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