My final pageant as a Miss USA/Miss Teen USA
State Pageant Director

The 2023 Miss West Virginia USA and Miss West Virginia Teen USA Pageant, was held June 2, 3 & 4, 2023 at the Virginia Thomas Law Center for the Performing Arts (PAC) at West Virginia Wesleyan College. This will be my final pageant as a Miss USA/Miss Teen USA State Pageant Director!  I will now concentrate solely on my work as the Buckhannon City Recorder and Information Coordinator.  Both positions provide ample opportunity to fill my days with exciting challenges and satisfying work.

I was blessed to be part of the world of pageantry since 1975, beginning as a young man who ran errands and set up staging.  That soon led to me becoming a part of a production team headed by Frank & Marie Sweeney who later mentored me to become a pageant emcee. Frank Sweeney was a leader in the world of Pageantry and taught me so much about the industry!

For many years I produced and emceed the West Virginia Strawberry Festival Teen & Queen pageants, the West Virginia Three Rivers Festival Teen & Queen pageants, and the West Virginia Association of Fairs and Festivals Pageant.  

In 1987 I accepted an offer to work full-time for CarVern Productions, a company that produced the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and owned America’s Perfect Teen Pageant System at the time.  For the next 9 years, I served as the organization’s Production Director and managed all our State Titleholders.

I left that position in 1996 to become the State Pageant Director of the Miss New Your USA and Miss New York Teen USA pageants where, in 1999 I watched my Miss New York USA, Kimberley Ann Pressler win the Miss USA Pageant.  I was then named State Pageant Director of the Miss Indiana USA and Miss Indiana Teen USA pageants, having both states operating under my own company, Sanders & Associates, Inc., dba Pageant Associates.

I gave up the directorship of the New York USA and Teen USA Pageants in 2002 in order to become the State Director of the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA state pageants in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  From 2011 through 2017 I was also the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA State Pageant Director of Connecticut and Vermont.  In 2012, my Miss Connecticut Teen USA representative, Logan West, won the Miss Teen USA title and shortly following, my Miss Connecticut USA representative, Erin Brady won the Miss USA title.

By 2020, I had become more involved locally with the City of Buckhannon and was only producing my home state events, the Miss West Virginia USA and Miss West Virginia Teen USA pageants, and was happy to do so in the City that I love and am proud to serve, Buckhannon.

Throughout all the years I have been blessed to work with many talented and dedicated people, which is why my company was named Sanders & Associates, Inc., dba Pageant Associates.  I could have never enjoyed the success that I have without the “Associates” who have been a part of my journey.  You know who you are, so please accept my sincere thanks!

I truly love the Miss Universe Organization and appreciate the opportunities that being affiliated with it has provided me over these many years.  I wish all of my colleagues, and whoever takes over the Miss West Virginia USA and Miss West Virginia Teen USA pageants, the very best.

Randy Sanders