When most people are planning trips to the lake and inviting friends over for outdoor barbecues over the long Labor Day weekend, one former Lambert resident will be competing for a national title in pageantry.
Gillette Vaira, 24, currently of Billings, is competing in the Miss National Sweetheart Pageant being held in Hoopeston, IL.
No stranger to the competitive side of beauty, grace and poise, Vaira is a two-time competitor for the title of Miss Montana. In 2011, she came in as third runner up while also taking the awards of Overall Interview, Preliminary Evening Gown and the Academic Scholar Award.
She graduated from Lambert High School in 2005 and received her Bachelor’s Degree in mass communications with a minor in international studies from MSU-Billings in 2009. She then went on to receive her Master’s Degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Montana.
She credits her pageantry aspirations to Jana LaBree, a former Miss Montana pageant winner who visited Vaira’s school in Lambert back in 2000. “Her words really had a profound impact on me. I used to dance for the Just for Kicks studio in Fairview and we used to provide the entertainment for the Miss Northeastern Montana Pageant that used to be held in Sidney and that experience just stayed with me,” she said. The pageant competition has since dissolved.
Being in the spotlight doesn’t make Vaira nervous as she is currently a news reporter for KULR, an NBC affiliate station in Billings and has plans of staying in the media industry.
Vaira said she is ready for this competition stating that it follows the same judging criteria as the Miss America styled pageant which includes a personal interview, talent performance, lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit, evening wear and an onstage question. “I don’t get nervous about being in the competition but I do find it challenging when it comes to time management. Pageants take an enormous amount of time and a person really has to utilize time management to make it work,” she said.
As a vocalist, she will be performing the song ‘You Raise Me Up’ by Josh Groban.
Vaira is an only child. Her parents are Collin Vaira, Lambert, and Mary Vaira, Billings.
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