During the week of the Miss Mississippi Pageant, 35 local women will volunteer their time and services to act as chaperones, liaisons and just plain mom to the 41 Miss Mississippi Pageant contestants.

“We take the girls to and from the convention center, help take care of any type of costume malfunction and get in touch with a contestant’s mother if needed,” said Pam Dorrell, the chairman of the Miss Mississippi Pageant hostesses.

Some of the hostesses are assigned to the hotel where the contestants stay during the week and their job is to check contestants in and out each time they arrive or go, said Dorrell, while other hostesses are used as floaters.

“Floaters get down to the convention center early and are in charge of getting the girls to their interviews,” she said.

A typical day in the life of a Miss Mississippi Pageant hostess begins at 8:30 a.m., said Dorrell and doesn’t usually end until around 10:30 p.m.

Chaperoning the contestants is a 24-hour job for hostesses who stay at the hotel overnight, she said.

Even though serving as a pageant hostess is time consuming and exhausting it is still fun, said Dorrell.

“It’s like a sisterhood between the hostesses,” she said, and added that the women also bond with the contestants.

The Miss Mississippi Pageant is scheduled to run at 8 p.m. July 9 through 12 at the Vicksburg Convention Center, 1600 Mulberry St. Tickets are $125 for all four nights of competition, $30 each for Wednesday and Thursday’s preliminaries, $40 for Friday’s preliminary and $50 for the final competition on Saturday.

The Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen Pageant will also be held in Vicksburg from June 5 through 7 at the Vicksburg City Auditorium, 901 Monroe St. The competition will begin each night at 8. Tickets are $75 for all three nights, $25 each for Thursday and Friday and $40 for Saturday.

For more information or tickets, call 601-638-6746.