A group of young girls flocked to a corner of the Nickelodeon family room this morning.
This year’s Miss Iowa, Jessica Pray had just arrived.
“I’m just going to enjoy myself and meet with the kids and families who go through so much,” said Pray, who attended the University of Iowa last year. “It’s such a cool event to be a part of.”
Pray — suited up in a royal blue dress, 7- or 8-inch tan heels, and her pageant tiara — spoke with Dance Marathon children and signed autographs.
Sierra Manning and Brylee Yirkovsky, both 11, were among the first to meet the pageant winner.
“She just shows you how big of an inspiration she is to the entire state,” Yirkovsky said.
Manning, who has a cancerous tumor on her brain stem, said meeting every Miss Iowa has been a goal of hers. She met Miss Iowa 2010 as well.
“It felt really good [to meet her],” Manning said. “It feels really good to meet every Miss Iowa.”
Pray, a native of Johnston took a year off from the UI to fulfill her duties as Miss Iowa and will resume classes in the fall as a sophomore.
“I try to get involved with anything community service related,” she said, adding the Miss America pageant is a fundraising program for the Children’s Miracle Network. “[Being in the pageant] you have to raise several hundred dollars, and that goes directly to the kids.”
Pray planned to participate in Dance Marathon last year as a freshman. She signed up, but soon after discovered the Miss America pageant and decided to devote her fundraising efforts toward that cause.
Though she hasn’t participated as a dancer, Pray said she hopes to make up for it today by speaking with Dance Marathon children and families.
“I couldn’t be a part of [Dance Marathon] as a dancer, but I can be a part of it as just meeting the kids and doing my thing as Miss Iowa,” she said.
Pray, who was also Miss Muscatine 2011, will be signing autographs and speaking with families for most of the morning.
“The kids are my inspiration to get me through the days when I’m tired and have no excuses,” she said. “These kids go through so much. It brightens my day more than I think I brighten theirs.”
— By Kristen East
