By Lauren Bell
Staff Writer

The ladies of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority held their fifth annual Ms. Backwards pageant, April 7 in the University Center.

The Ms. Backwards pageant is a mock beauty pageant where male UNCP students dress up like real beauty pageant contestants. The guys get up on stage dressed in a casual outfit and then an evening wear outfit, make-up and all. The guys are asked to fill out an information sheet containing humorous answers to questions like, “what do you do for fun?” and “describe your ideal man.”

These contestants are judged by a panel of three, based on who they think displayed the best Ms. Backwards. This year’s winner was Jeremy McKinney who fooled the judges with his mock female ways.

“I thought that it would be extremely embarrassing, but it ended up a good time anyway,” McKinney said.

Each contestant is awarded with a bag full of coupons, which are donated by local restaurants and movie rental stores. The winner of the pageant wins a crown and a trophy in appreciation for their participation. The guys also get together and vote on who they think best deserves the Miss Congeniality award, who also gets a bag full of prizes and a trophy.

The contestants are charged a fee to participate in the pageant, and there is a door charge for people watching. All of the money received from this program, though, goes to a good cause. The Tri Sigma’s donate all of the proceeds to their philanthropy, the Robbie Page Memorial.

The Robbie Page Memorial is play therapy for terminally ill children. These children usually are not given a long time to live, so the money goes to high-tech computers and toys for these children to enjoy.

Tri Sigma’s Robbie Page has two hospitals, one in Dallas, Texas, and one in Chapel Hill, N.C. These children are always grateful for their gifts and anything else sent to them.

The Ms. Backwards pageant was a success this year. “We had a great time and all of the guys did such a good job, we only hope to make the pageant bigger next year,” said Cara Glick, Tri Sigma and MC of the pageant.