By: Breven Honda

As the new year arrives, some of the big events in town start to appear closer.

One of those includes the 2026 Ms. Senior Mesquite Pageant, which is currently scheduled for late April or early May.

This year’s pageant also marks the 20th Anniversary Pageant in Mesquite.

Logistics are still coming together, including the venue. Entering January, the planning committee is still locking up where the pageant will take place after bouncing around from the local theatre to theatre at Virgin Valley High School.

For this upcoming pageant, there are currently six candidates trying to become the 2026 Ms. Senior Mesquite Pageant Winner and ultimately compete at the national level.

The candidates began meeting weekly on Wednesdays since October, defining their skills and ensuring their presentation goes smoothly come pageant time.

Unlike most beauty pageants, talent is not the only thing that determine the winner. There are three other topics: evening gown, philosophy of life and an interview with the judges.

“I’ve seen people who have fabulous talent who didn’t win,” said Becky Boyd, the administrator for the Ms. Senior Mesquite Pageant. “I love the fact that it’s a well-rounded woman.”

As a result, getting nearly seven months at most to prepare gives the women the time and energy they need.

Boyd said every contestant has their strengths and weaknesses, making each of the four topics challenging in its own way.

“We’ve had ladies who have been on stage that are either active in the theater or maybe they’re a singer, so they’re used to being on the stage,” Boyd said. “So, they’re awesome with talent, but they have a challenge with the interviews and maybe even the evening gowns or their philosophy of life.

“We have people who have been presidents of banks or CEOs or someone who’s used to speaking, who do really well in the interviews, but maybe their talent or evening gown,  philosophy is not that perfected, and that’s why we have these workshops.

“We want to make sure that every lady has the best chance ever to win.”

The philosophy of life part of the criteria has the chance to be one of the more time-consuming parts because of the thought that goes into that part as well as the action that comes with it.

This topic can lead to how this woman impacts the community to help find the philosophy.

However, the participants do not only rely on themselves. Besides Boyd, educators, past winners and contestants also play a role in developing the participant’s strengths to win.

That includes 2024 and 2025 queens Bronzie Daphney and Marie Alvey.

“All of the other ladies and all of the previous queens and volunteers are all there to help,” said Boyd, who is preparing for her third pageant. “So, we critique their philosophies and then make they say it every week, so it’s when they get up there on stage, they don’t get up there and forget it, like being a deer with headlights.

“(Alvey and Daphney) go with me out in the community to functions with their sashes, and we talk to ladies and encouraged them to be contestants. Now that we’ve started our workshops, they come every week, and they’ll talk to the ladies and encourage them.”

The contestants also get advice when it come to the interview to ensure they do not tense up and get panicked.

“With the interviews, we’ve been blessed to have the Exchange Club and the Toastmasters here in Mesquite, who help us do mock interviews,” Boyd said. “We practice and talk about questions that might come up. Then afterwards we critique them go, ‘Okay, you didn’t look the judge in the eye, you didn’t sit up straight, you took too long to answer a question. You need short, brief answers.’

“This is so each judge can get a little feel for you, because that’s one of the important things that every single judge gets a chance to ask a question, and they’re only in there for five minutes.”

Even within the first couple of months of preparation, there has already been improvements from the contestants.

“I’ve seen that already, just with the few contestants we have since we’ve been working in October,” Boyd said. “One of the ladies has already started playing out in the community and at her church that she never did before. So, it’s really awesome to see these ladies blossom and become such great assets to our community.”

For those who are still thinking about being a contestant, they have until the end of this month to enter and have the needed time to prepare for the pageant.