Pageant princess enjoying ride
August 17, 2012 4:28PM
Little Miss Channahon Anna McClimon rides in the Three Rivers Festival parade in a car driven by he show's coordinator, Dawn Daniels. | submitted photo
Updated: September 21, 2012 6:08AM
Little Miss Channahon Anna McClimon is having a grand time representing the village and being as much like a princess as possible.
Her first assignment was to ride in the Three Rivers Festival parade a week ago Sunday. It was something she was looking forward to, she told me right after winning the top spot on the court the second night of the festival.
When show coordinator Dawn Daniels was calling out the winners, starting from the third runner-up, Anna had a few anxious moments. When the first runner-up was announced, Anna was sure she wasn’t going to be part of the Little Miss Channahon court this year.
“That was the really bad part,” she said.
But her hard work and determination over the past year paid off big time, with a red sash proclaiming her regal position, a bouquet of flowers, gifts, and best of all, the tiara.
Anna was the second runner-up in last year’s Little Miss Channahon contest. Her mom, Diane, said Anna worked especially hard on the choreographed dance routine during the weeks preceding the contest.
The parade was “really fun,” Anna said a few days later.
She got to sit on the top of a Volkswagen convertible while she waved and smiled at the people lining the streets in the older section of Channahon.
“I felt like a princess,” she said.
Indeed she must have looked like one, as people in the crowd called her a pretty girl and other kids shouted out to look at the princess, she said.
Dawn, who drove the car Anna rode in, said all the girls had a blast in the parade. The Little Miss Channahon court, Addison Otto, Sadie Barker and Destiny Clower, rode in a second convertible right behind Anna and Dawn.
“They were so funny,” Dawn said of the girls. “They were dancing and singing, throwing candy, smiling and waving. They were a blast.”
When Miss Grundy County, Erica Weinrich of Seneca, came by in her float, the girls were thrilled because they got to see a “queen,” said Daniels.
“She’s a pretty girl,” Anna said about Erica.
Anna, 7, starts second grade at N.B. Galloway School in Channahon Tuesday. Her favorite subject is art, she said. She also likes computers.
“I like art because of how much confidence you take in it and you feel like you want to keep doing it,” she said.
She enjoys making “masterpieces,” with her drawings.
Though she’s got a way to go, she’s considering a job at Dunkin Donuts some day because she loves to eat doughnuts, and she would also like to be a lifeguard, she said.
But for now, Little Miss Channahon has a few jobs to do for the village of Channahon this year. The next one on her calendar is looking like a princess, along with her court of ladies, at the village picnic at Community Park on Sept. 1.
While she takes her job as Little Miss Channahon pretty seriously, there’s still room for lots of fun while she’s doing it.
“I’ll have to hand over my crown to my mom and jump on the jumpy,” she said.
Reach Kris Stadalsky at writestuff56@comcast.net.
