Winners
Kalee Brunelle was crowned Miss Bristol Nov. 14, five weeks after Martha Price was crowned Miss Bristol.
By
Dec 31, 2009, 11:57

BRISTOL — Kalee Brunelle was crowned Miss Bristol Nov. 14, five weeks after Martha Price was crowned Miss Bristol.

Both Brunelle and Price go about the duties expected of the winner of the pageant and both show up at many of the same events. Two pageants, two winners.

Bristol is the only community in Connecticut that chooses two pageant winners.

“It’s confusing,” said City Councilor Kevin McCauley. Confusing to the public and, “to someone coming in to compete. ‘Which one do I go for’?” a prospective contestant must now ask, said McCauley.

Even the names are confusing. The contest in existence for 49 years is called simply the “Miss Bristol Pageant” and is affiliated with the Miss America Pageant. The other, which broke away this year, calls itself the “Miss Bristol Scholarship Program/Pageant” and lists on its Web site all the previous 49 Miss Bristol’s.

“Why is my name on their list?” asked Dawn Kendall Raymond, Miss Bristol 1989. “The only Miss Bristol should be the one that goes on to the Miss America competition.”

Beverly Foote of the Mum Festival committee, however, sees no problem. Even though the Mum Festival hosted the 49th Miss Bristol competition Oct. 3 — the one Price won — both Miss Bristol’s can march in the Mum Parade, just in different divisions, said Foote

But as Miss Bristol enters her 50th anniversary year, a deep schism exists between the two organizations.

“I don’t believe we need two Miss Bristols,” said Raymond. “It doesn’t make sense. Something is not right. It’s a free country, but I don’t understand why she took the name with her ... I am so thankful for Linda for picking up the pieces.”

“She” is Diane Pelletier. Linda is Linda Lubrico.

Pelletier ran the Miss Bristol pageant for nine years until she formed her own program. Lubrico took over the Miss America-affiliated pageant. This is the first year the city has held two competing pageants.

Lubrico was cautious when asked what happened and said only, “I was asked if I’d take it on and I gladly did.” Her Miss Bristol, Martha Price of Rocky Hill, will go on to compete for Miss Connecticut. In the Miss Connecticut/Miss America-affiliated local pageant, contestants are not required to live in the town in which they compete, but they must live, work or go to school in the state.

Lubrico said if there are at least four contestants from Bristol she can close her Miss Bristol competition to only Bristol residents, and that is her goal.

Pelletier refused comment. Her Miss Bristol, Kalee Brunelle of Bristol Eastern High School, cannot compete for Miss Connecticut and contestants must live in Bristol.

Those close to pageantry worry that there won’t be enough contestants for a true competition. There were only four or five young women entered in each this past fall.

In 2006 a total of 13 girls competed (a Miss Forestville was also crowned).

“From the moment [Laura] Hansen graced the stage in her blue swimsuit until she ended the pageant wearing her white evening gown, she grabbed the attention of the hundreds in attendance,” the Bristol Press wrote then.

That night, Pelletier, with tears in her eyes, said of the contestants “I think I speak for all of us when I say they have been exemplary and represent what the Miss America pageant is all about.”

But now, Pelletier has broken away from Miss America affiliation and refuses to discuss it.

Her business manager, Robert Gonyea, has commented. He responded to an informal BristolPress.com poll on the two pageants, and wrote Nov. 19 that “our pageant isn’t about Miss America. It’s about something we believe in. We believe in our city, giving a young woman a chance to make a difference in her city, volunteering her time and energy in making things better. It’s not ... who is the prettiest ... I believe that the Miss Bristol representing her city should be from her city. The Miss America affiliation rules ... can’t guarantee this, which is one reason why we are not affiliated with them anymore ... Get used to it people ... A city would be lucky to have as many crowns helping and volunteering as this city does.”

His pageant contestants do not have a bathing suit competition.

To Lubrico, “The bathing suit competition is a tradition in Miss America and we follow the Miss America rules.”

Euphemisms seems to abound now in pageantry.

The bathing suit portion is now called “Lifestyle and Fitness” by the Miss America organization. And Lubrico doesn’t call her pageant a beauty pageant. “It is more about scholarship and community. There are four points to the crown of Miss America: service, scholarship, style, success.”

Miss America touts that it is the leading provider of scholarships for young women in the world. Each year it says it makes available tens of millions of dollars in cash and tuition scholarship assistance.

But beauty pageants are declining in popularity. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Miss America show on ABC in 1960 drew 85 million viewers. By 2005 on cable it had only 3.1 million viewers.

Luis Pabon, executive director of the Miss Connecticut pageant said, “popularity comes and goes.” He expressed little concern about the break-away group in Bristol and points out there’s both a Miss Connecticut and a competing Miss Connecticut USA pageant.

He said Miss Connecticut earns a $10,000 scholarship. “Young women are always looking for money to go to school,” he said.

Teresa C. Younger, executive director, of Connecticut’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, suggests that young women not focus “on the temporal beauty of youth.” While taking no stance on beauty pageants per se, “I would encourage young women to develop the self-confidence and skills that endure: leadership, the ability to negotiate, how to increase their earning power and economic self-sufficiency over the long haul,” said Younger.

But Mary Lynn Gagnon, Miss Bristol 1982 and Miss Connecticut USA 1983, values “the glamour of the sash and crown, and representing Bristol, the training and hard work involved. It helps you with interviewing skills and how to public speak. Pageants are a positive.”

She and Raymond and others would like to see a reconciliation somehow between the two competing Bristol pageants.

Gonyea, working with Pelletier said however, “We plan to be around for a long time.”

And Lubrico said, “I plan on being around for quite a while. We are planning the 50th.”

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