PAGEANTPREP

No regrets at being near-Miss

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL    Monday, March 26, 2007

By Paul Grimaldi, Journal Staff Writer

The whirlwind has started for Danielle Lacourse — just not all the benefits.  On Friday night, the North Providence woman was standing in the spotlight’s glare — if a little bit to one side — when she was voted first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant.

Yesterday morning she was just another traveler taking her shoes off for airport security and waiting in line like everyone else at Starbucks.  “I’m getting a very much needed Starbucks — a Frappuccino,” said Lacourse while waiting for her flight out of Los Angeles International Airport.

Lacourse, 21, won the title of Miss Rhode Island USA 2007 in the state pageant at Rhode Island College in September. Her mother and stepfather encouraged her to enter the contest, she said.  “I felt kind of idle,” said Lacourse, who is taking time out from her nursing studies at Rhode Island College. “I just felt like I needed to do something else.”

Lacourse graduated from St. Mary Academy-Bay View, where she was a member of the swim team. She is now a junior at RIC, enrolled in the nursing program where she maintains a 3.7 grade-point average. She says she wants to work as a nurse with newborn children at Women & Infants Hospital, following in the footsteps of her mother, Stephanie Lacourse, a nurse anesthetist.

Miss Rhode Island USA has served as a volunteer at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, as a page at the Rhode Island General Assembly, and since the age of 16, she has worked in a downtown Providence law firm. She has been a cheerleader, a dancer, and a competitive swimmer.   It was the first pageant she had entered, and she won the title over 47 other contestants.

She spent the next several months preparing for the national contest. She had a professional pageant coach, Rhode Island lawyer Erika Kruse, and a personal trainer, Scott Reid of Rhode Island Health and Fitness in Warwick. She began meeting with Kruse three times a week and working out twice a day, five days a week at the Warwick gym.  “The minute you’re crowned you’re in preparation for your national competition,” she said. “Every single day I had at least eight things to do.”

After months of preparation, she came within an eyelash of winning the national title.  “It turned out great,” she said. “I was crying, but they were tears of joy.” Taking the crown of Miss USA was Rachel Smith, a journalism graduate from Tennessee.  In the final moments of the pageant, Lacourse and Smith clasped hands and faced each other as they anxiously awaited the judges’ decision. Then, Lacourse was named first runner-up, making Smith the winner. The event was shown live on NBC.  The first runner-up winner takes the place of Miss USA in the event that she cannot fulfill her duties.

Lacourse heads to Mexico City in a few weeks to watch the Miss Universe pageant, in which Smith is competing. If Smith wins, Lacourse steps in as Miss USA.  In the meantime, Lacourse has events to attend in this state and offers from out of state to weigh. Modeling agency representatives have already contacted her. “There are doors opening up,” she said.