Confident representative: Local beauty queen competes at state level

While the rest of the community heaped its plates with ham, turkey and pie, Chassidy Ashby, of Churchville, practiced portion control. The 20-year-old Roanoke College student was preparing during her school’s holiday break for a state pageant that began Jan. 1 in Portsmouth.

Ashby is a veteran of many pageants, beginning when she was two years old, so at least a case of nerves didn’t interfere with her holidays.
“I know just what to do by now,” Ashby said. She said her routine of healthy eating and exercise before the pageant isn’t much different from her practice in daily life.

“It’s something I do all the time,” she said, “although I do have a weakness for ice cream.”

Ashby represented Augusta County at the Virginia Association of Fairs’ scholarship pageant. The winner of the 2008 Miss Augusta County Fair title joined young women from all over Virginia to compete for scholarships ranging from $500 to $2,500, to be paid directly to the winners’ schools.

Ashby didn’t win a scholarship but she had a memorable experience.

The contestants she’s met in her years of pageant work are nothing like the driven, cut-throat beauty queens sometimes depicted by the media, she said.
“Everyone was supportive and considerate. It was the kind of event where you make friends very quickly, and I’ll keep in touch with several people I met.”
Events leading up to the competition were designed to help contestants relax and form connections.

An opening night pajama party featured games and prizes, and the contestants worked together on the big production numbers.

The prize money is not the only motive she has for competition, Ashby said.

“Each time you participate in one of these events, you become more confident, more comfortable with yourself and who you are.”

Ashby studies business and communications at Roanoke College and would like to make a profession of representing businesses in the community and in the media, so her pageant work is a substantial addition to her resume.

In some ways, Ashby says, she’s different from most of the young women she’s met on the pageant circuit.

For one thing, she loves sports, and played basketball, volleyball and softball at Buffalo Gap High School. She plays intramural basketball and volleyball in college.

“It surprises some people who know me from sports that I also compete in pageants,” she said.

Her interests are pretty low-key, she said.

“Besides sports, I really love just hanging out with my friends and family. My next steps will be to start a career and I’d like to also like to start a family some day.”

She considers herself fairly low-maintenance compared with the contestants who arrive at competitions with an entourage of make-up artists and hairstylists.
“When I compete, it’s just me and my mom,” she said.

Mom is Elizabeth Ashby, a teacher at Buffalo Gap High School and a former county fair pageant winner from West Virginia.

“She’s always encouraged me, from the time I was two,” Chassidy Ashby said. “She helps with the hair and make-up.”

The mother-daughter team tries to keep things simple so they can handle it themselves.

For Ashby’s interview, she wore a simple ponytail and a tailored coral suit. When she wears formal dress, they manage a classic updo.

“There have been some real challenges at times,” Ashby said, “but we work through them.”

Her support group also includes her father, Todd, a scheduling manager at Perdue in Bridgewater; a brother, Travis, 17, a senior at Buffalo Gap; and sister, Camille, 8, who’s in the third grade at Churchville Elementary School.

“I think about Camille in almost everything I do,” says Ashby. “I’m very aware that I’m a role model for her.”

Life isn’t all ponytails and pajama parties for those who represent their communities at state pageants, Ashby said. The trend is toward more substantial community engagement, and she’s all for that.

“I think the progression to judging more on inner beauty is a good thing,” she said. She didn’t have to seek out a cause to be passionate about, she already had one.

Ashby worked for two summers for the Augusta County Parks and Recreation Department and got to know a couple of children whose parents had very little time for them.

“Everything I did for them made such a difference,” she said. “It made me think of how many children are just kind of lost. My platform is child neglect, and I expect I’ll find a way to stay involved in that, whatever I do.”