DANIEL TYLER GOODEN and AMY SZPARA

PAULINA – Crissy Michel is a busy 11th-grader at St. Charles Catholic School. In school she works hard like every other student. She has been the vice-president of her class since she was a freshman. In sports, she’s dedicated to softball, playing both for St. Charles and on the Longview Recreational Team in Paulina. “I’ve been playing since I was able to,” said Michel. With all her family active in sports, mom, dad and sister, Edie, Mark and Nikki, she started around 4 years-old. “I just started playing. That’s what we do in Paulina,” said Michel. This is her third year playing for the St. Charles team. Along with all the normal teen-age stuff, Michel also takes a bigger responsibility on her shoulders. Across the state, Michel represents St. James Parish as Festival of the Bonfire Teen Queen. This spring, she will be working to promote the bonfires, which are traditionally lighted along the levy on Christmas Eve. She works to get people to come for the festival, watch the bonfires and sample the local Cajun foods. Michel is no amateur to this work. In 1999, Michel reigned as the Teen St. James Sugar Queen. For the pageant, Michel and the other candidates participated in a number of competitions; evening gown, sportswear, a dance number, as well as interviews and a luncheon with the judges. “I always wanted to be the queen of something. My mom always wanted me to try it and I do well in front of a microphone,” said Michel. The sugar queen pageant was the first big contest Michel tried; she had been the first runner-up in the Junior Miss Bonfire Pageant in 1998. At the sugar queen pageant “I thought I’d get second or third. When they called my number, I started shaking, but I was confident,” said Michel. Since then she has been all over the state attending different festivals. Being a Sugar Queen, Michel received a tour of the sugar industry in St. James Parish, to better represent her title and parish. For the sugar queen pageant, Michel won $200, a trophy, crown and banner, as well as a paid trip to see the state sugar industry. For the Festival of the Bonfires pageant, Michel won $150, and a trophy, crown and banner. After graduating from St. Charles Catholic, Michel wants to go to Southern Louisiana University to study nursing and pediatrics. While in college, Michel hopes to return to win the Sugar Queen title and then try for a state pageant. “If you win a state pageant, it’s easier to win something like Miss Louisiana,” said Michel. She enjoys the competition, which is the main enjoyment for her. Competition seems to be in her blood, not just in pageants, but in sports and evidently life. Nothing more could be asked of a good students, sportsman and pageant queen.