DRYL Queens Pageant – It Just Gets Better Each Year !

This years theme was ‘It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere’ … and it was 5 o’clock ALL WEEKEND LONG!!

Late Saturday night Mary and I sat on our boat and thought about past pageants – and how they have seem to just have gotten better and better each year. Mary & I have been involved with The Pageant Committee for many years – but not as many as our Committee Head Toni Nespola. Toni works so hard for the league and our young ladies who are princesses and Queens. I cannot think of a future pageant without Toni and know NO ONE who could replace her and her efforts. I want to start by thanking her for turning the pageant into a professionally looking and well run event. Representatives from The Bay spoke to me on Saturday night after the pageant and were amazed of how the affair was handled, run and how festive it was. After the conversations I felt very proud (and you should as well) of how the league, our Queen and our Princesses are represented that week-end and that all falls back to Toni and her work for the league.

The week-end started out with many boats coming in on Friday night and some on Saturday morning. Almost 90 boats came out this year and docking was a breeze – no problems, no headaches , no issues! Even though each year the boats gets bigger and bigger which makes the puzzle of filling the basin harder to do, everything went smooth as silk. It is not an easy task keeping all the boats together w/ their clubs, keeping princess boats and those w/ special needs against the dock. This task used to be a breeze to do, but is now taking hours of rearranging the puzzle pieces to make it all come together. I have to give thanks to FSAs JR Pyffer and NHYCs Paul Richardson who worked hard on the puzzle and to the docking crew who aided the boats into their docking locations. NPBCs Mike Cassabian and AYCs Dan Cefalone are always the first to call and offer their help with docking and have been a big part of the docking for this event for many years.

Late Saturday morning has the Princesses meeting at Dave & Buster’s for a luncheon where the young ladies get to relax, enjoy some good food and mingle with the Queen and the Princesses from the Bay before the BIG EVENT. I was told the food was ‘yummy good’ – LOL

After lunch the Princesses have to rush back to prepare their footwear for the ‘ 2^nd Annual Flip Flop Contest. This is just another great idea that Toni has incorporated into the week-end and has become a big hit. The Princesses and the crowd all enjoy the fancy foot wear and the tunes that DJ John (our very own 1^st VP Maloney) plays.

After the Flip Flop Contest the focus switches to the boats that decorated to the theme ‘It’s Five O’clock Somewhere’. I must say, RWYC ( Best Decorated Club ) came in like the Amish for a barn raising. Instead of a barn, they put up a little town from all over the world. For the 3^rd year in row RWYC has taken this title and truly gives the event a festive atmosphere. They are all about making sure everyone has a good time and if you do not have a good time with these people – you cannot have a good time. YAC and AYC attempted to dethrone the King but RWYC was just too much for them – heck, RWYC could have won the Fancy Brigade at the New Years Day Mummers Parade!

The evening affair got under way with waterfront pictures of the Princesses and Commodores ….

…. And The Princess Court!

After the pictures it was time for the BIG EVENT! The pageant kicked off with the DRYL Honor / Color Guard taking center stage and Past Queen Siobhan Sullivan introducing the MC’s for the evening (Past President Bob Bocock and Past Queen, the lovely Astra Haldeman) – Astra was recently married and I am sorry to say I do not know her new last name. The Honor / Color Guard saluted the Commodores & Princesses as they were introduced and marched off stage after the National Anthem. It was now time for the MC’s to bring the Princesses up for their onstage questions. These questions were given to the MC’s by The Princess Court young girls and they were the cutest things to watch walk across stage a hand the envelopes to Bob & Astra, who by the way did a wonderful job of keeping the Princesses relaxed while on stage and in front of the masses.

One of the things that Toni brought to the pageant was having someone speak to the Princesses on public speaking. The Princesses are given directions on how to publicly speak and handle themselves on stage and then sent to different tables where they are asked questions and then given more direction and thoughts on how to answer questions. This is by far probably the best thing Toni has added to the event and it is so evident during the stage questions as the girls are so much more relaxed when on stage and in front of the microphone. The Princesses answer their questions easily and handle themselves remarkably well and when you consider that these young ladies are between 16 – 21 years of age, it is no doubt that this public speaking instruction is a valuable part of the pageant and something the girls will use in the future.

After the questions were asked, it was time for our lovely out going Queen Miss Carla Cefalone to say a few words. Carla had many shedding tears and spoke so well about her past year – she is a special young lady and AYC and her parents should be very, very proud.

It was now over and in the judges hands. The judges had a very tough task and it showed as it took a long time for them to come up with the winners. The Princesses and Commodores were back on stage and the winners announced. This year’s winners were …

2^nd Runner-Up Miss WEBC Angela Bruno ….. 1^st Runner-Up Miss FSA Brittany Lawyer and The 2010 DRYL Queen….

Miss Bordentown YC Rebecca Jones !!!

Miss WEBC Angela Bruno was also voted Miss Congeniality by her peers.

All the young ladies did an excellent job for their clubs and we should continue to support them in anything they ask of us.

It was an EXCELLENT PAGEANT – Mary & I enjoyed ourselves and will no doubt be a part of this again next year!! If you attended, I hope you enjoyed yourself, if you attended and did not enjoy yourself, you must be one of those people that cannot have a good time with the RWYC members and should seek help!

Lastly, I want to thank Candyce & John for the excellent pictures that they take for us …