9-Month-Old Beauty Off to a Fair Start
Jamie Skulavik of Escondido is making a big name for herself on the beauty-pageant circuit these days. She entered her first contest on Feb. 7. She has been in seven pageants since then and has carted home no less than 28 trophies.
She’s won such titles as Miss Glamour Queen, Dream Girl, Miss Personality, Miss California Girl and Miss Photogenic.
She’s been honored for her smile, her eyes and her charm. She won one trophy for how she looked in formal wear, another for how she looked in a bathing suit.
She’s 9 months old.
Her mother, Tammy Skulavik, says she is trying to market her baby daughter for a television commercial career. “I’m trying to get some exposure for her,” she said. “At a majority of the legitimate beauty pageants you go to, talent agents and producers are doing the judging.”
It may be paying off. There are one or two deals in the works that might soon find Jamie on the small screen pitching baby products, she said.
Jamie smiles and giggles when held on stage by her mother. She reacts to her name, waves and is beginning to learn how to blow kisses, Skulavik said. A real charmer and a real looker, she is.
“She does very well as an overall package,” her mother says unabashedly.
So the question has to be asked: Is all this healthy for a 9-month-old?
Yes, says Skulavik, 26, an Escondido native who represented her hometown in the Fairest of the Fair contest in 1976.
“They’re learning good sportsmanship, how to participate with others, how to follow directions, how to present themselves with the proper etiquette and manners that a child should have, and how to appropriately groom themselves--all things that children should learn,” she said.
So far Jamie has come home empty-handed from only one of the seven contests she has entered. “She starts watching when the trophies are handed out and she waits very patiently to get hers. Once, babies on each side of her received one and she just turned and looked at them, and she didn’t get one of her own. But she still seemed happy and I don’t think she realizes that she wins or loses.”
The pageant passion has infiltrated the family. Older brother Justin, 3, complained once that he was bored, sitting in the audience while his little sister got all the attention. So he was entered in a pageant of his own, and won 9 out of 12 possible trophies for his age group. He’s currently retired.
The competition is tough in Jamie’s age category, Tammy Skulavik said. “Some of the older babies are walking now, and they’re really cute when they toddle out onto the stage.”
Is there a vicarious thrill for Mom with the presentation of each trophy? “Oh, sure. I was so excited when she won Miss Teeny Orange County that my eyes just filled up with tears.”
Search for Identity
Valley Center has decided it’s time to grow up. Townsfolk out there are staging a logo contest to develop a graphic symbol to reflect the state of the art of country living.
Businessman Craig Johnson, vice chairman of the Valley Center Planning Group and logo contest coordinator, said 26 logo entries were submitted, representing, he said diplomatically, “all skill levels.”
From that field, five finalists were selected to be put to a public vote over the next three weeks via the Roadrunner, Valley Center’s local newspaper.
Johnson said each of the suggested logos had some merit, even if some were overly generic like the one that professed “Truth in Friendship.”
The Chamber of Commerce has had a logo for years but everyone thinks it’s a little dated. It shows the Palomar Mountain Observatory and proclaims Valley Center as “the highway to the stars.” “But we don’t want to be considered a highway to anywhere anymore,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to be a town you drive through , but a place to go to, and stay.”
He said there’s no clear-cut winner among the finalists. “And there’s no common theme among them, except there’s a tree in every one.”
Exclusive Bonus Club
Grocery stores may dabble in double coupons and scratch-away games, but Neiman-Marcus may have the simplest bonus program yet for shoppers in an altogether different class.
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The rules in this N-M game are simple. You get a point for every dollar you spend at the store.
A Dark House
The power outage Saturday night at Balboa Park took its toll, especially on the world premiere of A.R. (Pete) Gurney Jr.’s “Another Antigone,” set for the Cassius Carter Centre Stage. The two-hour outage delayed the debut until Sunday afternoon.
But that didn’t stop the cast from holding its opening-night party Saturday night anyway, and it didn’t stop Executive Producer Craig Noel next door from rehearsing “Intimate Exchanges,” which opens Thursday at the Old Globe.
Unruffled when the lights went out, Noel ordered flashlights and the rehearsal went on.
