February 12, 2008 09:53 am
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BY RUTH RICE
RRICE@TRIBDEM.COM
When the lights come up on the high school musical “Smile” at Bishop Carroll in Ebensburg, the fictional beauty pageant contestants will have been taught how to bloom by a professional.
Carmen Bloom, Miss Greater Johnstown and a junior honors student at Kutztown University, Berks County, will attend rehearsal on Saturday to give the girls some pointers on the ins and outs of competing in contests such as the Miss Cambria County Scholarship Pageant.
Bloom resides in Berks County, but was able to win the crown of Miss Greater Johnstown 2008 at the local pageant, which is an official preliminary to Miss Pennsylvania and Miss America, because Cambria County’s contest is open to girls in the entire state.
“There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania and only 25 local contests to get to Miss Pennsylvania,” Bloom explained.
In addition to being the reigning Miss Greater Johnstown, Bloom was crowned Miss White Rose City in 2007 and Miss Greater Berks County in 2006.
The idea to ask for a beauty pageant winner to get an inside perspective came from one of the 19 cast members in the musical, said Bruce Standley, drama director at Bishop Carroll.
The cast had hoped to get Victoria Bechtold, a former Miss Pennsylvania, but she is too busy with law school in Florida.
Bechtold passed along the request to the Miss America organization, and Bloom agreed to make the trip to Ebensburg.
Bloom became familiar with Johnstown and Cambria County long before she came to the area to compete in the Miss Cambria County Scholarship Pageant.
When she had to write a paper on a state event for college, she chose the 1889 Johnstown Flood.
“I learned a lot about the area and was intrigued by the pride of the people in Johnstown and Cambria County,” Bloom said.
Advising girls on how to be fictional beauty pageant contestants is one of the more unusual requests Bloom has received since being crowned Miss Greater Johnstown.
“I’ve had to make myself adaptable,” Bloom said. “I was asked to participate in a corporate spelling bee and got to beat out bankers and lawyers. I approach it as broadening my horizons.”
No stranger to musical theater, Bloom played the role of Bloody Mary in her high school’s production of “South Pacific.”
At Bishop Carroll, Bloom hopes to assist the girls in developing themselves professionally and academically as well as teaching them how to stand, walk, speak and present themselves.
“I want to give them a taste of that and hope they might want to enter a contest themselves,” Bloom said. “I hope I can convey how much they can benefit from it.”
Bloom hopes to attend graduate school in the District of Columbia or Philadelphia after graduating from Kutztown, where she is majoring in political science. She hopes to seek public office.
She has served as a student ambassador to Kutztown Borough Council from 2006-08.
Currently, she is an intern for Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Noll.
Her ultimate goal is to become the first female governor of Pennsylvania.
Carmen Bloom
What: Miss Greater Johnstown 2008 and a junior honors student at Kutztown University, Berks County.
Accomplishments: Crowned Miss Greater Berks County in 2006 and Miss White Rose City in 2007. Named first runner-up in Miss Greater Pittsburgh Scholarship Pageant in 2008 and top interview award winner in Miss Pennsylvania 2007 pageant. Competed in Miss Pennsylvania 2006 pageant and Miss Central Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant in 2007.
Future aspiration: To become the first female governor of Pennsylvania.
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