The 58th Annual Miss UF Pageant, sponsored by Florida Blue Key, crowned Elizabeth Fechtel as its new Miss UF Monday night.
Alison Hassell, pageant executive director, estimated 1,000 guests attended this year’s pageant, which was themed “Where the girls are the fairest.”
Hassell, a 21-year-old UF business management junior, said one of the goals for this year’s pageant was to increase the diversity within the pageant contestants.
“This year, we have 18 contestants,” Hassel said. “We’ve increased the number ... To have a lot of different diversity in our group is exciting.”
This year’s pageant contestants displayed a range of talents, including piano recitals, West African dance and martial arts.
Attendees paid about $15 to watch the women compete for the crown. Hassell said proceeds go toward Dance Marathon’s charity, the Children’s Miracle Network.
Rachel Hart, last year’s winner, said Miss UF should represent The Gator Nation.
“We wanted Miss UF to be more accessible and attainable,” Hart said, “as well as approachable this year.”
Hart, a 20-year-old UF advertising sophomore, said she and Hassell announced the event to multiple organizations to try and get the word out.
She said she refers to her Miss UF status in third person to emphasize the objectivity of her role.
“People don’t really care that Miss UF is Rachel Hart,” she said.
Hart said being Miss UF has made her evaluate how she represents herself.
One of the contestants in the event was 21-year-old Stephanie Tinoco, a UF telecommunication junior.
She said her experience coaching the Boys & Girls Club of Alachua County in its first pageant pushed her to compete in a pageant herself.
“After the pageant (my students said), ‘Coach Stephanie, you should compete, you should compete,’” Tinoco said. “And I said, ‘All right, well, I’m gonna do this for my girls.’”
Another contestant, Ashley Innis, a 19-year-old UF psychology freshman, said she started pageantry when she was 15.
Innis, Monday’s third runner-up, said a college pageant is different from her previous competitions because her sorority sisters, family and friends will fill the audience.
“I just want to make them proud,” Innis said. “I’m just going to be smiling and having a good time.”
Overall, Hart said the goal of the pageant was to foster confidence in all women. She stayed backstage to tuck inspirational messages from each contestant into personalized goodie bags.
“I just think it’s really important that every girl leaves the pageant feeling a little bit better about themselves,” she said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/25/2014 under the headline “Sophomore wins annual Miss UF charity pageant"]
Telecommunication sophomore Elizabeth Fechtel is crowned Miss UF 2014 at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Monday night.
Telecommunication sophomore Elizabeth Fechtel of Alpha Delta Pi displays her choice of evening wear during Miss UF 2014 at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Monday night.
