Windham student learning confidence through pageants

By Erin Rose

Windham student Peyton Dore is learning to conquer the stage as she prepares to compete in the state’s Women of Service Pageant in March.

Windham student Peyton Dore, 7, a second grader
at Windham Christian Academy, won the Coastal
Maine Women of Service Young Princess title
in Windham in August and will compete in the
Maine Women of Service Pageant in March. 
COURTESY PHOTO

“I like playing dress up,” Peyton, 7, said when asked why she loves doing pageants. “It’s fun when I get to see the judges and my family” from the stage, including her dad, Troy, and 9-year-old brother Landon.

Kristin Dore, Peyton’s mother, explained that the duo decided to start competing in pageants at the encouragement of her pageant coach.

“Her coach, who is also the director of the pageant, Windham High graduate Morgan Wing, reached out and said ‘Peyton should do these!’” she said. “I figured she liked getting dressed up, so why not?”

Peyton entered the pageant world in January and has found success in the nine months since. She earned the Coastal Maine Women of Service Young Princess title at the local competition, held in Windham in August. That title guarantees her place at the state event and the potential chance to compete for national titles.

In addition to the overall competition, Peyton participates in a number of different optional categories that allow her to showcase beauty and fashion, including American Wear, Photogenic, Casual Wear, and Fitness. She most recently won titles in several of those categories as well.

In her most recent interview round, she was one of several contestants go through to determine who will take the crown, and Peyton’s judges have noticed how she’s improved in the short time she’s being doing pageants.

“Mrs. Maine was one of her practice judges, and then was a judge at the recent pageant,” Kristin said. “She said it was night and day, that Peyton had improved so much.”

One of the titles Peyton won in the regional competition is especially meaningful.

“She also won Miss Congeniality,” Kristin said. “All the contestants vote on that. That means she showed what the pageant represents.”

Peyton, who is in second grade at Windham Christian Academy, is known to be helpful backstage, cheering up younger contestants and helping them get pumped to walk the stage, even helping them with their clothes and accessories.

“One of them didn’t want to put her cute shoes on, and her mom was trying to put cute ones I liked on,” Peyton explained. “I told her, ‘You’re just going to wear them for a couple minutes and then take them off,’ and she started to wear them.”

“I was also telling her that her outfits were cute,” she added.

She also helps to get other kids energized before they take the stage.

“The little kids, if they’re in front of me, I try to get them excited so that they’re ready to get on stage” she said, adding that she wants to make sure “they’re not scared.”

Kristin says that Peyton’s actions are an example of how supportive the community is backstage at the Women of Service pageants.

“Everyone helps each other, even if you’re in the same group as someone,” she said. “It’s very helpful and very uplifting.”

One major component of the pageant is that each contestant must have a platform to provide service to their community. Peyton has chosen to pass out bags to homeless people in the area which includes granola bars, hand sanitizers, pretzels, gloves, and other small items.

“We did it in kindergarten and first grade as a fun project,” Peyton said, adding that they give out bags when they see people in need in the community. “I’ve kept doing it.”

Originally nervous when facing the competitions, Peyton is learning to embrace the stage, a skill that will help her as she enjoys dancing with the Maine Dance Center.

“I used to be scared, but then I get brave,” Peyton said. 

“She’s very nervous when she goes out there and then she’s a whole different kid,” Kristin added.

The pageants provide a great opportunity for Peyton to be the competitor, as the family frequently attends sporting events for her brother. It also provides time for Kristin and Peyton to spend together.

“She’s always been the sideline sibling so it’s great to have her moment,” Kristin said. “When she won the Natural Beauty award, she was very happy, and said, ‘Momma, you did this with me’. It was a nice moment.”

“She knows that we’re going all over the place with her brother, and it’s nice to have her shining moment,” she said.

The Maine Women of Service Pageant is part of the International and American Women of Service Pageant organization. It is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to empowering girls and women through a commitment to service, education and leadership development. The pageant has nine age divisions, ranging from girls as young as 5 in the Little Princess division to over 50 in the Classic division. <

Local girls earn titles during Maine Women of Service Pageant

By Erin Rose

Raymond twins Alexa and Alison Largay and Windham student Peyton Dore are celebrating after taking home titles from the Maine Women of Service Pageant held in Freeport on Sunday, March 8.

Three girls from the Lakes Region brought home titles after
competing in the Maine Women of Service Pageant held
in Freeport on Sunday, March 8. From left are Alison 
Largay of Raymond, Alexa Largay of Raymond and Peyton
Dore of Windham. SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Alexa took the crown as the winner of the Young Teen Division at the state-level competition, with Alison taking home the Ambassador title, meaning both will go on to compete at the national Women of Service pageant in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in July. Windham’s Peyton Dore also took first runner-up in the Little Princess Division and won the overall Most Photogenic and Best Casual category titles.

“This was my first time winning a really, really big title,” Alexa said. “It feels really good. I couldn’t stop crying.”

Both Alexa and Alison agree that the crowns and outfits are bonuses to participating in the pageant, in addition to the community service and other pageant-related activities, but Alison added that meeting new people throughout the course of the pageant is the best part of participating.

“In pageants, you meet the best people, especially the younger kids who look up to you,” she said.

Kristin Dore, Peyton’s mom, said that her daughter’s participation in pageants was inspired by her love of the stage.

“The minute she stepped on the stage, it was something else. She just shined,” she said. “It’s fun as a parent to see your kid shine. She’s got the personality and everything. I could never in a million years go up on a stage and do what she did.”

Instead of a traditional beauty pageant, the Women of Service pageant requires contestants to have community service platforms under which they work to execute projects to help others.

While Peyton is just establishing her platform, she has started building bags to distribute to homeless people in the community. The bags contain granola bars, hand sanitizer, pretzels, gloves, and other small items.

Alexa and Alison both dedicated their platforms to the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital located in Portland. The two spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), making the cause personal for them.

Alexa operates “Pages for Premies,” and has donated books to the NICU at the hospital, ensuring that each child has a book when they go home.

“I reach out through social media, including Facebook and Instagram, and ask people to donate,” she explained. “They send me books and as soon as I hit 60 books, I go to the NICU and donate.”

Alison’s platform is “Toys for Tiny Miracles,” which raises funds to purchase toys and other items for the babies. She has donated more than $200 so far.

Alexa and Alison are both homeschooled, so the pageants provide them with an opportunity to be a part of a community and a chance to make friends.

“They’re making friends for life,” said Julie Largay, Alexa and Alison’s mother. “Once you make a friend there, it’s such a strong bond that they will stay together forever. “They are getting poise and elegance and stage presence, and they’re learning to talk to people. They’re learning charity work, what’s important and how to help people. Especially to a homeschool mom, they’re getting so much out of this. It brings so much more to who they are as a person.”

Dore also said that the pageant community is very supportive and helpful, especially for newcomers.

“It’s such a small community and they’re all really supportive of each other,” she said, explaining that the support of her own community of family and friends has helped ease the challenge of taking on pageants.

In addition to the pageant stage, the twins are actors and models who have featured in both local and worldwide campaigns. Alexa has shot three commercials, including an international campaign for CVS’s “Here for Her” program, promoting women’s health. Alison filmed a Jordan’s Furniture commercial for local audiences, where she “lived her best life…and got to jump on couches and jump on furniture,” Largay said.

The Maine Women of Service Pageant is part of the International and American Women of Service Pageant organization. It is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to empowering girls and women through a commitment to service, education and leadership development. The pageant has nine age divisions, ranging from girls as young as 5 in the Little Princess division to over 50 in the Classic division. <