S.C. Strawberry Pageant contestants raise money for cancer research

Pediatric cancer claims the lives of more children than any other disease and one pageant’s contestants and winners have taken up the cause.

Nearly 2,000 children die from cancer each year, according to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Every day, 43 kids are diagnosed with cancer and one in eight won’t survive, according to CureSearch for Children’s Cancer.

Mrs. South Carolina Strawberry Festival 2013, Dana Boutwell, is a Good Cookie Ambassador for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, which raises money through grassroots efforts, mainly bake sales, to fund pediatric cancer research. Since winning her title, Boutwell’s efforts have raised more than $70,000 for the organization.

Pageant officials have chosen Cookies for Kids’ Cancer as the pageant’s official cause for the second year in a row.

“Science can’t move forward because of a lack of funding,” Boutwell said.

Funding for childhood cancer accounts for less than 4 percent of the National Cancer Institute’s multi-billion dollar budget, and there have been just two new FDA approved childhood cancer drugs in the past 20 years, officials for the organization say.

Fort Mill’s S.C. Strawberry Festival pageant, now in its sixth year, will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 11 in the Nation Ford High School auditorium. Past and present Strawberry Queens and contestants made and sold goodies for the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer bake sale at the recent For Every Season Consignment Sale at The Pointe arena. Additionally, the sale of consignment items marked with a green ribbon benefit CFKC and Halfway There Animal Rescue.

Contestants will put on another bake sale in conjunction with a blood drive the day after the pageant.

Contestants are encouraged to participate in as many of the pageant’s philanthropy events as possible, and the pageant’s judges will see the time contestants have put into events with the use of Good Cookie stickers given to the girls upon completion of a project.

This year, contestants are making platform pages for judges to review.

“It’s basically an ‘all about me’ page, so the judges know who they are,” said 2012 Mrs. S.C. Strawberry Festival Paula Stone.

Stone said the judges will ask better interview questions based on each contestant’s platform page, which will outline their family, interests and philanthropic cause they hope to represent if crowned. This, along with each contestant’s head shot and application, will be given to judges two weeks prior to the pageant.

The bake sales are strictly donation only. Contestant Alexandra Cook, 15, said she enjoyed seeing so many people willing to give.

“It’s nice to see generosity,” she said.

Boutwell said it is important for the contestants to understand the importance of giving back, and to participate in philanthropy themselves.

“That’s the whole concept behind the pageant,” she said. “It’s ‘Cause Before Crown.’”

“It’s more about helping people and giving back to the community, and less about beauty,” Cook agreed.

Bryana Gose, 20, said she was nervous about entering the pageant, but that interacting with the former queens put her at ease.

“They really helped me calm my nerves and let us know, ‘It’s OK to be yourself,’” she said.

Boutwell said she loves seeing contestants become more involved in service work through participating in the pageant.

“It sparks a fire in them to continue,” she said. “I know it did for me.”

This story was originally published March 19, 2015 at 4:30 PM with the headline "S.C. Strawberry Pageant contestants raise money for cancer research."