By Kara Moore
304-348-4806
Mrs. West Virginia International Misty McMinn wants to use her crown to promote volunteering and health.
The 27-year-old Teays Valley resident described her platform as "rebuilding the value of community service."
McMinn is an ambassador for Volunteer West Virginia, and she plans to go to local high schools to help students complete their required community service hours. She is also an ambassador for the West Virginia Heart Association, citing the state's high obesity rate as a cause for activism.
McMinn works with her husband, Scott, in his business, Peak Electrical.
The Mrs. International crown is McMinn's first.
"I'm a little late doing it, but I'm still living the dream I wanted years ago," McMinn said.
McMinn started competing in pageants when she was 18, a high school student in her hometown of Point Pleasant.
She competed in the Miss America pageant system, which is separate from the Mrs. International system and the West Virginia Fairs and Festivals system.
"I really enjoyed a Miss America," McMinn said. "I competed for Miss West Virginia three different years. Then I became too old."
Now she's a pageant director.
"This will be my fifth year directing for Miss America," McMinn said. "I'm the director for Miss Kanawha Valley scholarship competition."
The Miss America system is the largest provider of college scholarships to women, McMinn said.
McMinn also coaches local Miss America pageant winners to go on to bigger competitions, and she loves working with competitors.
"It's in your blood," McMinn said. "I have so much fun helping the girls. I feel like I give a lot of good advice, and I felt like I should take it myself for once."
Miss America contestants can't be older than 24, but the International system offers the Mrs. category for married women aged 21 to 56.
The International system also crowns a Miss and a Teen Miss. There are no qualifying pageants in West Virginia, and state winners go on to compete in the international competition.
McMinn said that people often get the wrong idea about pageants from television.
"Pageantry is not just one thing," McMinn said. "A lot of the things people see on TV - the 'Toddlers and Tiaras' - that's a whole different thing."
McMinn called that "glitz pageantry."
"The pageants I deal with in the International system and Miss America are definitely more of a natural look," McMinn said. "They want to see your accomplishments and your platform."
And McMinn's platform is near to her heart.
"I think that anybody can do anything they can put their mind to with or without the crown, but the crown helps open up doors."
When McMinn's reign ends in the spring, she won't be eligible to compete for Mrs. West Virginia International again. She could find other pageants, but she said she isn't really interested in competing again.
"I did what I set out to do," McMinn said. "I wanted to win. I wanted to be a very good spokesperson for West Virginia."