Three Vernon Hills queens chosen to reign

Three contestants who have been there before, including a past winner, reign as Vernon Hills queens for 2012.

Natalie Chiarello, 17, a senior at Vernon Hills High School; Brianna Bolotin, 12, a seventh-grader at Hawthorn Middle School North; and Valerie Burda, 9, a fourth-grader at Hawthorn Elementary School, last month were chosen Miss, Junior Miss and Little Miss Vernon Hills, respectively, for 2012.

All three of the current queens have participated in the pageant before. Burda competed two years ago for Little Miss and Bolotin was Little Miss Vernon Hills in 2009. Chiarello competed last year in the Miss pageant.

The winners were chosen June 23 at the Sullivan Center in Vernon Hills. The judges are selected from outside Vernon Hills and most were former queens, parents of former queens, or pageant directors from other towns.

Each year, three young ladies are chosen to represent the village as Little Miss, Junior Miss and Miss Vernon Hills. Contestants experience fun activities, meet new people and become more involved with the village.

Pageant winners were selected based on three categories: private interview, onstage speech, and pop question. The private interview is weighed most heavily in their overall scores, and contestants are asked age-appropriate questions about their interests and future plans.

Twenty-five contestants from around Vernon Hills competed for the titles.

Throughout the year, the Vernon Hills queens will focus on community events in the village and around Lake County. They helped at the recent Summer Celebration festival and will be at other events, such as Summer Splash, National Night Out, Oktoberfest, Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, other holiday events and other local appearances.

They also participate in several community service projects, such as blanket and book donation drives and volunteer at the Northern Illinois Food Pantry.

These young ladies also compete against other town queens in the Lake County Community Pageant in November. The reigning Little Miss Lake County, Madisyn Chiarello, represented Vernon Hills at last year’s Lake County pageant. Current Miss Vernon Hills Natalie Chiarello is her older sister.