Canfield woman vies for Miss Ohio

Miss Greater Cleveland is an advocate for the
developmentally disabled.

BY WILL HANLON

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

CANFIELD — A 21-year-old Canfield woman is just one hurdle away from a second chance at living her dream.

Elyse Healey, daughter of Chris and JoAnn Healey, said she has long dreamed of competing in the Miss America pageant. She will be one of 21 candidates competing in the Miss Ohio Pageant Tuesday through Saturday. The winner will compete for the Miss America crown.

Healey earned her trip to the state pageant by winning the Miss Greater Cleveland pageant.

Last year, Healey competed in Miss Ohio as Miss Stark County and earned third runner-up honors.

This year, she hopes to finish higher.

“My preparation started when I was a kid 10 years ago with a voice teacher,” Healey said. Come the talent portion of the pageant, she’ll be singing “Once Upon a Time,” from the Broadway show “Brooklyn,” a song she says is a message about her life.

Healey competed in her first pageant in her senior year of high school, Junior Miss, and has been devoted to pageants ever since.

Being prepared

Healey says the most exhausting preparation leading up to a pageant is her physical fitness, as she spends three hours a day, six days a week at the gym keeping herself in pageant shape.

Though looking good before she gets to the pageant is strenuous enough, Healey says the most stressful part of a pageant stretches throughout the whole course of the competition.

“You can never let down your game face,” Healey said. “There are always people and judges watching you, whether you’re on stage or off the stage.”

Out of the five pageant competitions of private interview, talent, evening wear, swimsuit and on-stage interview, Healey said the swimsuit category is usually her least favorite.

“There’s a lot of pressure to look perfect,” Healey said. “It takes a lot of self-confidence, something I think I have more of this year than I did last year.”

Healey is an advocate of disabled people and has been a volunteer at the Leonard Kirtz School for the last five years. This has helped her choose her platform for the pageant: “Think Ability.” The platform stresses to forget about the individuals’ disabilities, and, rather, look at all the actions they are able to perform.

“My platform should remind everyone that these mentally and physically challenged people are ... not different, but rather they are unique and special,” Healey’s Web site reads.

Back when she was Miss Stark County, Healey started a blog on blogspot.com as a journal describing her thoughts and experiences along the way of being Miss Stark County. Now, as Miss Greater Cleveland, Healey has started a new blog: theroadtomissohio.blogspot.com, which has had almost 15,000 hits since its creation.

With all the focus on the pageant and preparation for it, Healey said it is difficult to keep up with the blog, but somehow finds the time to update it as frequently as possible.

“Sometimes the only time I find myself updating it is at 2 or 3 in the morning.”

Healey also has her own personal Web site, www.elysehealey.com.

Come fall, Healey will be a senior at Youngstown State University, and is planning to continue her career in the field of law at Ohio State University.

In her spare time when she’s not competing or volunteering, Healey enjoys playing tennis, kickboxing and community theater.