DATE: Thursday, June 26, 1997               TAG: 9706240181

SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS         PAGE: 03   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: THUMBS UP! 

SOURCE: BY KATHRYN DARLING, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

LONG ROAD TO STATE PAGEANT

Summer Hawkins has a long commute to fulfill her obligations as Miss Norfolk.

Since she was crowned at Ruffner Middle School in March, Hawkins, 17, who lives in Lynchburg, has made the four-hour trip to and from Norfolk almost every week.

Leaving early in the morning, once even at 3 a.m., she and her mother, Sandra Hawkins, spend three to four days in town.

When she's in Norfolk, she has been making public appearances and preparing for the Miss Virginia Pageant, a Miss America preliminary which begins today in Roanoke and concludes Saturday night.

The Lynchburg resident qualified for the Norfolk pageant because it lacked the number of contestants needed to hold an annual competition, said Leigh Berry, director of the Miss Norfolk Pageant. The competition was opened to anyone in the state who wanted to compete.

Other pageants in Hampton Roads, such as the Miss Portsmouth Seawall and the Miss Tidewater, are always open.

Hawkins, who graduated from high school this month, heard about Norfolk's open pageant just six days before the competition began.

She had competed in the Miss Lynchburg Pageant on Saturday, March 15, and the following Monday morning she heard about the open pageant in Norfolk from her hairdresser.

She applied, and by Saturday, Summer Hawkins was the 1997 Miss Norfolk.

Hawkins, who plans a career in television, said she decided to compete in the Miss America preliminaries to help her future success.

It has been quite a commitment. Since March, Hawkins has completed her high school studies, doing assignments on the road and at home, and finished a college English course at Liberty University, where she will study in the fall. For the past month, she's had an internship with the ABC affiliate in Lynchburg, which includes working and appearing on the show, ``Good Morning Virginia.''

Hawkins, who calls herself a workout fanatic, is used to a full schedule.

In Norfolk, has attended Harborfest, the Azalea Festival air show, visited Nauticus, City Council, appeared on ``Live at 9'' and greeted the Japanese sailors as they arrived at the Norfolk Naval Base last week. When the Roosevelt returned from the Mediterranean, she gave each of the crew a red rose to give their sweeties. She gave out 4,000 roses that day, she said.

Two of the three days she spends at home in Lynchburg, she gets up at 6 a.m. and walks for an hour. She works at the TV station from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., has a kickboxing workout from 6:30 to 7:30, goes home to eat dinner, meets with her choreographer from 10 p.m. to midnight, goes home and swims laps for an hour, and gets to bed around 2 a.m.

Hawkins also has an internship with an adoption agency and has volunteered with Liberty Godparent Home, a maternity home for single pregnant young women that offers counseling, education and encouragement.

Hawkins chose adoption as her platform, the issue that focuses on the pageant winners' volunteer efforts during their reign.

Hawkins, who is proud of her African-American, Cherokee and caucasian heritage, has also been affected by adoption. Her father, adopted her when she was 5 months old.

Too many teens are not given enough information about adoption, she said. In high school she saw numerous young mothers who couldn't handle having a child in their teen years. Hawkins isn't advocating that every young mother give up her baby, but those who keep them need to be able to support their child financial and emotionally, she said.

Hawkins will do a tap dance routine from the Broadway musical ``Jelly's Last Jam'' as her talent presentation at the Miss Virginia Pageant.

The Miss Virginia Pageant will be broadcast locally at 9 p.m. Saturday on WVBT-Channel 43. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by VICKI CRONIS

Miss Norfolk, Summer Hawkins, hams it up as she poses in a sailor

cutout on a recent tour of Nauticus.

Photo

Summer Hawkins hopes to win the state crown for Norfolk.

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