Miss America Announces Participation From Puerto Rico

The Miss America Organization Is Proud to Announce for the First Time in Almost 50 Years, Puerto Rico Will Be Represented at the 2010 Miss America Pageant - Live From Planet Hollywood on TLC!

(Image of Miss America 2009 Katie Stam - Miss America Organization - All Rights Reserved).

For the first time since 1961, Miss Puerto Rico will be competing in the Miss America Pageant in January! The 2010 Miss America Pageant will now showcase 53 incredibly talented, intelligent and beautiful young women live on TLC from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. (The pageant date will be announced soon.)

"We are truly excited to welcome Puerto Rico back to the Miss America Organization and are thrilled to have Miss Puerto Rico competing this year," said Art McMaster, President and CEO of the Miss America Organization.

"The Miss Puerto Rico Organization has a tremendous amount of pageant expertise and business savvy, and will surely thrive as part of the Miss America program."

The Miss Puerto Rico Scholarship Program will be headed by Executive Director, Joselo Sostre. Sostre is a logistics officer by trade and has extensive business experience in the areas of strategy, creative development, design, production and staging of event programs. Joselo is joined by Vice President, Arlette Velez; Secretary, Darwin Cabrera; Fashion Designer, Steven Rosengard, and veteran Choreographer, Brett DeBeaulieu.

Similar to the states, District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Miss Puerto Rico Scholarship Program will provide scholarship awards to program participants and will hold an annual competition, the winner of which will proceed to the national competition as Miss Puerto Rico. The Miss Puerto Rico Competition will be held in Caguas, Puerto Rico with the winner being crowned on Saturday night, July 18 by Miss America 2009 Katie Stam.

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Puerto Rico back into the Miss America Pageant after almost 50 years of absence, said Joselo Sostre. " With our current economic crisis, this is a great scholarship opportunity that will provide hope and empowerment to young women who are pursuing their dreams."

For more information on how to compete in the Miss Puerto Rico Scholarship Program Pageant, contact [email protected]

About Miss America

The Miss America Organization is one of the nation's leading achievement programs and the world's largest provider of scholarship assistance for young women. Last year, the Miss America Organization and its state and local affiliates made available more than $45 million in scholarship assistance. For more information, visit www.missamerica.org.

For information on Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, please visit www.planethollywood.com. For information on TLC, please visit http://tlc.discovery.com.