Julie LaBar is Miss Rogers City 2009

by Richard Lamb, Advance Editor

Julie LaBar is the new Miss Rogers City after winning the Nautical City Queen?s Pageant Friday at Rogers City High School (RCHS). The daughter of Michelle and Dana LaBar was named queen as Logan Schuiteman, the daughter of Dr. Jay and Deb Schuiteman, earned first runner-up and Brogan Brege, the daughter of Neil and Yvonne Brege, earned second runner-up.

LaBar, who like the other contestants will be a senior at RCHS in the fall, shared the talent award with Tayler Bannasch. LaBar sang ?I Enjoy Being a Girl,? a Rodgers and Hammerstein song from the 1959 musical ?Flower Drum Song.? She was the only singer among the nine contestants.

She was crowned by outgoing queen Jordyn Lamb and pageant director Pennie Kelly as master of ceremonies Art Ross announced the results. Lamb, who will also be a senior at RCHS this fall, helped with awarding the prizes, as did court members from last year, Jessica Ruppert and Kaelie Florip.

?It was the craziest, biggest moment of my life,? LaBar said of the moment Ross announced her name as the winner. ?I started shaking so badly when he said my name. Everything came together so perfectly tonight.? Bannasch, the daughter of Barb and Brian Bannasch, performed a dance/skit displaying her talent in pointe and tap dancing.

First runner-up Schuiteman won the evening gown presentation, coordination and ticket sales award. Her dance routine was performed to the song ?Do Your Own Thing.? Brege did a unique flag routine for her talent presentation. With the theme of ?stars? dominating the evening, the nine conte

stants put on a great night of entertainment, shining on the stage with their talent presentations and showing poise during the evening gown portion of the pageant.

The opening number, choreographed by Morgan Schuiteman, was to the song ?Starstruck? and had the contestants dancing in front of stars decorating the stage. The talent presentations included a dance routine titled ?History of Dance? from Paige McLennan; a dance to ?Wizards of Winter? from Megan Hopp; a sign language presentation to ?Home? by Kelly Vogelheim; Hannah Gunn dancing to ?The Way You Make Me Feel;? and a monologue by Cara Lafferty.

Bannasch and Hopp shared the congeniality award. Additional entertainment came from Ruppert, who sang the Jim Brickman song ?Never Alone,? to the accompaniment of audio engineer for the pageant, Brad Schulwitz on the keyboards. Jordyn Lamb and her sister Kelleigh followed that with a dance to ?Imagine? before pageant director Kelly sang ?At Last,? as the judges finalized their results. In her farewell speech, Jordyn Lamb said ?I remember growing up watching the pageant from a front row seat. I couldn?t wait for my chance to take the stage. The beautiful contestants were celebrities to me as they glided down the runway. During the past year, I?ve been blessed to live that dream.? The queen and her court have a busy week and year ahead as they represent the Nautical City Festival and Rogers City at many events throughout the year.

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