All hail the queen: East Bethany native is Sunburst Beauty Pageant’s Miss New York
PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2016 AT 12:30 AM
EAST BETHANY — Fleur Remington is a queen in the most beautiful sense.
Two weekends ago, the 21-year-old East Bethany native took home the crown and glory of the New York State Sunburst Beauty Pageant.
It was the latest step in a progression which started in 2014, when she went to Watertown and competed in a local pageant sponsored by Sunburst.
“I won that one, which moved me to the state pageant, which occurred in May 2015 where I had tied for fourth runner-up,” she said Tuesday.
The Sunburst Beauty Pageant is based out of Florida. It was founded by Theresa Spooner in 1978.
With Sunburst Beauty Pageants, once a contestant wins a local title, they don’t have to keep competing to return to the state-level pageant.
Remington said around January she received a letter informing her if she wanted to come back to the state pageant, she could. After talking to her pageant coach, Mary Therese Friel — who encouraged her to go back — she decided to compete for the state crown once again.
“So, I was like ‘All right, I’ll go back, and see what happens,” Remington said. “And I won this time. So, I’m very happy I went back.”
PREPARING AND COMPETING
Although the state-level pageant has optional categories in which contestants can compete, there is the mandatory evening gown and up-front appraisal, in which competitors go up to the judges in the Sunburst T-shirt and shorts.
“You are like four feet away from them, and they just look at you,” Remington said. “You say your name, your age and you just smile at them.
“Obviously everyone knows about the evening gowns,” she continued. “You find a dress that makes you look beautiful, that makes you feel beautiful, and you rock it on stage. That’s exactly what I did because I won and it’s so exiting.”
Remington got her dress at Blushing Brides in Brockport, and said the store was so helpful to her, because she was struggling finding a dress which made her feel confident.
She also won the swimsuit, photogenic A, and photogenic B, and top model looks. And she tied for model search.
“(Preparing) depends on the pageant,” Remington said. “This one did not have an interview process, which Miss USA and Miss America organizations have. This time I didn’t have to prepare for an interview. I didn’t have to watch the news and keep up on current events. I get in my tallest pair of shoes and just walk around everywhere in them, just to make sure I can still walk in high heels, because I never wear them on a daily basis.”
She also puts on her dress to make sure she can move it properly if it has a train, in addition to doing a practice run of her hair.
“It can be (physically challenging) because obviously you need to be the best you can be, and I’ve had knee problems since I was like in seventh grade,” Remington said. “Also my feet were destroyed after this past weekend. People were like, ‘Oh they’re just heels!’
“I was like, ‘You want to walk in six-inch heels all day? Be my guest,’” she continued. “You know your feet get all disgusting because heels mess with your posture, hurt your back, hurt your legs. But when you are up there you have to show like nothing is bothering you. That everything is perfect. That you are perfect.”
Being in a pageant though doesn’t mean a contestant needs to be on the cutting edge of fashion; Remington joked she has the worst fashion sense in the world and wears T-shirts and shorts or T-shirts and jeans.
“Sometimes I’ll find like a cute sundress, and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I can wear that.’ But you know, with a dress, you don’t have to match it with anything else,” she laughed.
A WHIMSICAL START
Remington’s start into the beauty pageant world started in 2013 when she received a pamphlet in the mail for the Miss New York USA Pageant.
“It just happened on a whim,” she said. “When I was in high school, I never thought this is who I would be. I didn’t have the confidence in myself to put my heart and soul out there to be judged essentially by an entire community to represent them.
“It’s made me more confident because I was bullied in high school, so I had no confidence in myself whatsoever,” she continued. “My mom was like, ‘You’re so beautiful, you should do modeling. There was this photographer who said you were so beautiful.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah that’s nice mom, but I don’t feel beautiful.’”
After applying online to make her mother happy, Remington got a phone interview before receiving an email saying she got in.
“I was like, ‘Oh. I guess have to go now,’” she laughed. “I had a lot of fun. I met a lot of interesting people that I was able to create friendships with that I’m still friends with today.”
Despite not planning originally to participate in beauty pageants, Remington said she wants to keep participating.
“When you are Miss New York or you are Miss America or anything like that, you can go out and change so many lives,” she said. “That’s what I really want to do. I want to use these titles that I obtain to help people.”
Remington advocates for breast cancer and veteran suicide prevention.
“(When veterans come back home), it’s not really like, ‘Let’s talk about what happened. Let’s help you figure out what’s going on,’” she said. “It’s like, ‘OK here is a week of classes, and if you are depressed, take this medication you’ll be fine,’
“No, that’s not what (the veterans) need,” she continued. “I really want to help push to raise that as well because every day 22 veterans commit suicide. That shouldn’t be happening.”
FUTURE PLANS
A graduate of Alexander Central School and Genesee Community College, Remington finished her first semester at SUNY Brockport pursuing a degree in biology with a minor in forensic science.
“I want to be a forensic lab technician,” she said. “It’s something I always wanted to do since I was like 10 years old. I had my own play microscopes where I would make slides and try to figure out whose fingerprints it was or what type of hair it was.
“It just fascinates me how you can find out so much information from such little evidence,” she continued. “I like the thought of putting the pieces together to figure out what happened.”
As far as beauty pageants go, while Remington will be able to compete in the Sunburst Beauty Pageant nationals this July, she is thinking about partaking in it next year to pursue some other opportunities at other pageants.
“If I go on and win the national pageant for Sunburst and I go on and win another pageant, I would have to give up my crown for Sunburst,” she explained. “It’s a little unfair for me to win it and then have it, and give it to someone else who is not going to be able to enjoy the full year of being the national queen for Sunburst.”
ADVICE AND THANKS
“The one person I do have to thank for all of this is Mary Therese Friel from Pittford, N.Y.,” Remington said. “She was former New York USA and former Miss USA and without her, I would be so lost,
“I would not know what to do because she obviously is a pro,” she continued. “She knows what she is doing. She’s just made me feel like I can do anything, and she made me into the wonderful, educated, professional woman that I am today. Without her I would be a completely different person I think.”
For others who wish to compete in beauty pageants, she said “don’t hesitate.”
“Just go for it if that is what you want to do — just like with anything in life,” Remington said. “If you want to be a firefighter, if you want to be a doctor, if you want to be a librarian, just do it.
“Put your heart and soul into it and put everything you have into it and you will get there. I’m an example of that. I had the worst self image in the world, and now I’m have so much confidence and inner and outer beauty, if I didn’t do this, I wouldn’t be that person.”
http://www.ogd.com/bdn01/all-hail-the-queen-east-bethany-native-is-sunburst-beauty-pageants-miss-new-york-20160601
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