MOSES LAKE — The coronavirus pandemic can be blamed for disrupting a lot of things: businesses, schools, sports, churches, festivals and personal lives. Now we can add one more thing to the list: pageants.

“It has been challenging, really challenging, to say the least,” said Pam Curnel, of Moses Lake, who has directed the Mrs. Washington America pageant for 28 years. The pageant was supposed to be held May 30, but like so many other things, it was pushed back when COVID-19 reared its virulent head.

Pushed back, but not canceled. Instead, the pageant will take place in August.

“We can only go out so far because Mrs. America is always in August,” Curnel said. “Well, as each month went by, that got pushed out until October. So I went from May to June, then I pushed it as far as I could to Aug. 8, and I think we’ll be able to do it Aug. 8. We should be in Phase 4, with (gatherings of) 50 or more. No matter what, I’m going to have the pageant. I’m not going to postpone it anymore.”

The event is actually made up of three pageants. The original, Mrs. Washington America, is open to married women of any age. Miss Washington For America is the second, open to single women, whether never married, widowed or divorced. And the third, Mrs. Washington American, isn’t entirely a pageant unto itself; it’s composed of the first runners-up from the Mrs. Washington America competitions.

The competitors in all those pageants are judged on an interview with the panel of five judges for 50 percent of their score, then physical fitness and evening gown competitions for 25 percent each. Curnel was Mrs. Washington herself, in 1993.

She also directs a fourth event, the Special Stars Pageant, for girls and women with Down syndrome, but that event had to be called off this year.

“This year we were partnering with the Seattle Down syndrome society but because of the COVID thing we had to put that on hold,” she said. “That was going to be a really big deal. That was unfortunate. Dang it! But we’ll do it again. It probably won’t happen until next spring sometime.”

The pandemic has made a big difference in the preparation for the Mrs. Washington, Miss Washington For America and Mrs. Washington American pageants, Curnel said. She collects and reviews the applications herself, from all over the state. Contestants who are accepted start off with a title indicating where they’re from: Miss Moses Lake, Mrs. Ephrata, Mrs. Grant County. After that, Curnel coaches and trains the ladies to be able to give the best presentations of themselves possible. Obviously, this year the contestants and Curnel haven’t been able to get together in person, so she’s turned to some technological solutions.

“With this COVID it’s been interesting because a lot of things are done through Zoom, like some of our meetings,” she said. “What I do as a stage director, I’ve been doing weekly Facebook Live on our private Facebook page. We go on there and talk about aspects of the pageant, informing them about what’s going on. Like OK, we’ve got to postpone the pageant for another date.”

“I’m also a professional choreographer, so I do the choreography,” she added. “I’m teaching them the choreography on video piece by piece. It’s really weird; it’s really changed. But you know, in a way it’s still kind of neat because we’re still able to see each other. So I think it would be worse if there was no connection at all — no Zoom, no live video. I think that would make it very difficult.”

The venue will be the same as it has always been, the Kenneth J. Minnaert theater in Olympia.

“That’s where we have it every year,” Curnel said. “I like the state capital, having the pageant there because it is our state capital. And what’s really kind of neat is that the last 28 years, every governor has supported us and put an article in our program book.” Whoever wins in Olympia will go on to represent our state at the Mrs. America pageant in October in Las Vegas. In 2017, Mrs. Washington America Natalie Luttmer brought home the Mrs. America prize, the first time Washington has won in the history of the event, which still fills Curnel with pride.

Washington holds its pageant later in the year than most other states, so Curnel has spent more preparation time under COVID-19 restrictions than some of her counterparts around the country. This has created obstacles, but not insurmountable ones.

“Some pageants are doing virtual pageantry, where they go online and you do the three phases of competition, or they’ll submit a CD, or a Zoom thing, We’re not going to do that. I think, worst-case scenario, would be myself, the judges and the contestants. That’s worst-case scenario, because I don’t want to have to do anything besides providing a pageant. But I think we’re going to be OK. I really do.”

Meanwhile, the contestants, 30 of them, are practicing their poise and physical fitness, and volunteering in the community as well.

“We keep them busy year round,” Curnel said. “We’re out there volunteering our time. Even through this they’re out there doing food banks, wearing masks and gloves, getting food, delivering it to elderly people. They’re still out there doing things.”

“It’s challenging, just like for everyone else,” she added. “Through all this, the one thing I can say about my ladies is we’re able to still make a difference, get out there and help in one way or another. My heart goes out to businesses that have been lost due to this. Everybody just needs to band together and do the best we can.”