
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994                    TAG: 9406280147 
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS                     PAGE: W8    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY SHARON LAROWE, CORRESPONDENT 
DATELINE: 940630                                 LENGTH: Short

MISS NORFOLK HEADING FOR VA. PAGEANT AT TOP SPEED

{LEAD} Melissa Bagwell's family is going into what her mother calls ``warp speed'' in the last days before the reigning Miss Norfolk heads for the state pageant.

When she finished her junior-year finals at the College of William and Mary, Melissa, an accounting major, had only a week and a half to prepare for the Miss Norfolk pageant in May.

{REST} This weekend, she will be in Roanoke to vie for the title of Miss Virginia. On Saturday, she will perform lyrical dance in the talent competition.

``She is preparing for this like you would prepare for a final,'' said her mom, Janet Bagwell.

Preparing for the pageant has been a family effort that will have to continue at the Miss America level if Melissa wins the state title.

Melissa spent about $1,000 for clothing, shoes and accessories for the Miss Norfolk pageant and took 27 outfits to Roanoke for this week's events.

To focus on the competition, Melissa temporarily moved to her chaperon's home in Chesapeake. There she is exercising every day and practicing her dance routine.

Melissa's pageant platform calls for educational reform. She believes in setting up mentorship programs to encourage students to excel in academic pursuits. She also envisions teacher retraining and curriculum mod-ifi-cation.

``Even though it's a basic issue and even though people have talked about it before, it's still not being addressed,'' she said. by CNB