Little Miss Merry Christmas crowned

Correspondent

While most pageants are about outward beauty, the Portales Chamber of Commerce’s annual little miss merry christmas pageant is about community service and a love of Portales, according to chamber officials.

The 29th annual event, held at the Yam Theatre Thursday on Main Street, is a competition between girls of all elementary school ages to raise money to maintain the Christmas lights on businesses around downtown Portales.

link Correspondent photo: Anna George

Miss Portales Jessica Baird, left, crowns Savana Heflin, 9, as little miss merry christmas on Thursday at the 29th annual pageant.

Savana Heflin, 9, who was crowned the 2015 little miss merry christmas at the event Thursday night, raised nearly $2,000 through bake sales, a 50/50 raffle and an auction in conjunction with her sponsor, J.P. Stone Community Bank.

“We sold cookies; I got to eat some,” Heflin said.

She said she had a really fun time with the pageant, and she would do it again. She said she joined in the first place to have fun and feel confident about herself, but it was about more than that.

“This event is special, because we get to make Portales beautiful at Christmas time,” Heflin said.

Chamber Director Karl Terry said between the nine contestants, the girls raised $5,565 to replace bulbs and help keep the city beautiful.

Light maintenance was in need of larger funds this year after the chamber had to replace nearly all $1,800 worth of lights due to a hail storm.

“It was critical for us to do well this year,” Terry said.

Nelly Valenzuela, 10, said her favorite part of the event was getting to dress up, but she agreed that it was important to help the city.

“I love helping to make the town pretty at Christmas time,” Valenzuela said.

Shaleen Eickhls, mother of 5-year-old contestant Daphnie Day Gearhart, said their family had just moved to Portales, but they were happy to help their new home.

Eickhls and Gearhart had a GoFundMe page, bake sales and put flyers on people’s cars to raise money for the event.

“I enjoyed watching my child having fun,” Eickhls said.

Not only the chamber and contestants banded together to help create a beautiful Christmas time for Portales. The Miss Portales program participated by hosting the event and crowning the new little miss merry christmas.

Miss Outstanding Teen 2015 Amelia Legler hosted the event and asked the girls questions as they took the stage. She was assisted by Miss Portales 2015 Jessica Baird.

Miss Portales Director Amy Green said the girls’ involvement in this event is important, because it gets the young girls started on the right track.

“If they see our girls being so successful, getting scholarships and reaching out to the community, I’m hoping they will do the same,” Green said.