HELENA — For more than 70 years, the Miss Montana competition has been a mainstay in the Treasure State’s small but passionate community. Recently, the program underwent a major transition in its leadership.
“One day I happened to be on Facebook and there was a plea for help for Montana. The group that used to run it, quote, unquote, defected to another program,” said Danette Swain, Miss Montana’s current director.
Swain explained, “They said we need people who know the Miss America program who can help in Montana. And of course, I raised my hand and said, well, hey, I'm retiring, I'm moving there, no problem. What I didn't realize was that they wanted me to be the executive director. That hit me like a ton of bricks.”
During the early days of the pandemic, the leadership of the non-profit pageant opted to leave the program, leaving contestants to wonder if the pageant would ever return.
“We didn't have leadership for almost two years,” said 2023 Miss Montana Faith Johnson. “In 2022, we didn't have leadership until five weeks before Miss Montana happened in 2022, and we didn't think it was going to happen.”
“We got free rented space. We literally had five weeks to put it together with no money. We had 1700 dollars in our account that was given to us by Miss America, and we literally pulled it off by the hair of our chinny chin chin, we literally pulled it off and we were blessed that we had a wonderful young lady that was crowned, very proactive in getting sponsors and such,” said Swain recalling the 2022 Miss America pageant where Alexa Baisch of Glendive was crowned Miss Montana. “I have no doubt it will be the same. But for us, it's – it's a total rebuild. It's a total overhaul since last year.”
The Miss Montana pageant is a scholarship-based program, where contestants are competing to get their education paid for, and historically the winner of the pageant is tasked with representing the program by attending events across the state and at the Miss America Pageant.
However, due to the change in leadership and the inability to fundraise, the funding to provide the latter isn’t there requiring Johnson to do extra legwork in addition to her duties as Miss Montana like searching for sponsorships, fundraising, and working part-time in at a coffee shop in Helena.
“I'm finding all my own sponsorships and funding and I had to start a GoFundMe because I have to pay my way to Miss America,” said Johnson. “Most states don't have to do that because they have large funding and a board that like – 5 to 10 people board that raises funds for the Miss [State Pageants] and we just don't have that here in Montana because it's not technically a big pageant state, which is understandable.”
Swain told MTN that across the last two pageants, she has been relying on the help of volunteers due to her living elsewhere, but said she is in the process of moving to Montana.
“Once I'm here full time, I can dedicate a lot more time to it and going out and pounding the pavement for sponsors. But we don't charge girls entry fees like the other systems do,” said Swain. “We charge $150 on average for our entry fee and those girls get every dime of that back in scholarship every time. So at the end of the day, they are out zero out of pocket because they get that scholarship.”
As with many things in Montana, Johnson, Swain, and Miss Montana contestants are determined to find a way to bring the program back to its original glory because they believe in what it stands for.
“There's a million different ways you can be Miss America. And my girls on that stage in Montana last month was living proof of that. They were phenomenal. I was so proud of every single one of them. They just got out there and they left it on the stage and in their interview room. And we're just amazing from the time that we started working with them,” said Swain. “By the time they were on that stage with Faith and she was crowned, you had a completely different set of girls.”
“I hope that I can bring in a bunch of sponsors that we'll be able to keep for future Miss Montanas because I don't want them to have to go through what I've had to go through trying to find all these sponsors and my board, my new executive director, has been working very hard trying to find sponsors, and I want to be able to keep them, retain them for these new Miss Montanas because this is such a wonderful program,” said Johnson.
To learn more about Johnson and her journey to the Miss America Competition as Miss Montana, click here to visit her GoFundMe page. More information about the Miss Montana Scholarship Pageant can be found on the non-profit’s website.
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