Pageant News Bureau - Miss America / MADD

By Ashley Gholamhosseini
PNB special correspondent

On July 7, 2006, the reigning Miss America came to Atlanta. She came with a serious message. -- one that bears repeating because it is often tragically ignored.

Her name is Jennifer Berry, and besides being Miss America 2006, she's a national spokeswoman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Her pageant "platform" is building Intolerance to Drunk Driving and Underage Drinking. Behind that bureaucratic-sounding language is a painful memory: At age 15, she lost her best friend in a grisly highway crash caused by a drunk motorist.

On her whirlwind visit to Atlanta, the future teacher spoke to groups all over the city. She asked people in every audience to sign up for Strides for Change, a MADD fundraiser. She met the governor. And she kept her message simple. “There are not a lot of things in the world that are 100 percent preventable, but drunk driving is.”

But the trip wasn't all blood and tears. Ms. Berry is above all a pageant star, and though Miss America is not officially supposed to be a "beauty queen," this Oklahoma girl is gorgeous. When questioned, she found time to discuss a few less sorrowful subjects:

On persistence: ”I competed for five years before I won the title of Miss Oklahoma.”
On the scholarship benefits of being a winner: “I will finish college totally debt-free.”
On preparation: Contestants should be realistic and not spend themselves into poverty on an endless array of gowns and other accessories. “Ultimately, judges aren’t judging your dress, they are looking at how you carry yourself.”
On her favorite thing about being Miss America: “I don’t have one favorite thing, but I love knowing that I will always be [a] Miss America.”

Ashley Gholamhosseini

About the author

Ashley Gholamhosseini is a 21-year-old junior and honors student at Georgia State University. She majors in journalism and public relations and for the summer of 2006 a news intern at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She is also Miss Georgia State University 2006 and has competed at Miss Georgia.

Ms. Gholamhosseini's platform is "Vehicle Safety: Safety for All," and like Jennifer Berry, she speaks from experience. In 2004, as a pedestrian in Atlanta, she was struck by a vehicle but managed to escaped serious injury.

“I believe there are three important decisions every one of us has to make when we get behind the wheel of a vehicle. We must decide not to drink and drive. We must decide to always wear our seatbelts, and we must choose to be attentive drivers.” Ms. Gholamhosseini is also deeply involved in fundraising for MADD, and escorted Ms. Berry during her visit to Atlanta.

Miss America is a lifesaver