Garden Grove resident Bree Morse, 24, has been named "Miss Orange Coast 2015."
This follows her 2014 title as "Miss Orange County," by way of also having being crowned "Miss Garden Grove" a few years back.
This is the fifth year this crown and title have been awarded. The pageant is the official preliminary to the Miss California and Miss America Organizations, according to Executive Director Connie Benson.
Garden Grove resident Bree Morse, 24, has been named "Miss Orange Coast 2015."
This follows her 2014 title as "Miss Orange County," by way of also having being crowned "Miss Garden Grove" a few years back.
This is the fifth year this crown and title have been awarded. The pageant is the official preliminary to the Miss California and Miss America Organizations, according to Executive Director Connie Benson.
In June, Morse will compete in Fresno for the title of "Miss California" and be eligible for college scholarships if selected as a winner or runner up.
In 2010, Morse graduated from Pacifica High in Garden Grove and was named Miss Garden Grove in 2012; she also served as Garden Grove’s Outstanding Teen in 2009-2010.
Areas of competition for all pageants under the Miss America program include a private interview, on-stage questions, talent, lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit and evening gown.
Morse's talent is dance.
Her platform is: "Service for Sight" and she currently works with the Blind Children's Center of Long Beach and hopes to become further involved with the Blind Children's Center of Orange County.
Morse is a 2014 Cal State Long Beach graduate with a bachelor of science in business marketing and has been a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and a member of Delta Gamma Sorority, of which she was president.
Along with her already busy schedule, Morse has been employed as a file clerk at Perkowtiz + Ruth Architects.
Competing for the title of "Miss Orange County" along with Morse were 13 other “Misses."
“She’s worked really hard to get into shape physically and mentally, reading current events for the on-stage portion of the competition, which is the toughest area for Bree, but she has improved over the years, learning to make short and sweet statements,” said her mother Debbie Morse. “The judges take a lot of questions from the current events. We, as her parents are very supportive.”
Morse said she has been practicing her talent with the help of a choreographer who critiques and adds insight for the performance number.
Morse said that since she was a sophomore in high school at Pacifica High, where she was a member of the Cheer Team, she has wanted to be in pageants.
Her cheer team was invited to participate in a past “Miss Garden Grove and Friends” show at the Strawberry Festival hosted by the Miss Garden Grove pageant.
“At that time, I received information about the Miss Teen Garden Grove and in August of 2008 I competed for the Miss Garden Grove’s Outstanding Teen,” said Morse. “I didn’t win that year, but went back the next year in 2009 and won the title.”
After winning that title, she took a year off and then competed for the Miss Garden Grove title in 2011 but didn’t win, she said.
Competing in 2012, she became Miss Garden Grove.
“I saw all of the fun things the Miss Garden Grove organization does and wanted to see what it could do for me from a social aspect and for the scholarship,” Morse said.
According to Morse, the Miss Garden Grove pageant is part of the Miss America organization under that umbrella and Miss America is the number one provider of scholarships to young ladies throughout the world.
“When you win the Miss Teen and Miss Garden Grove scholarships, it’s for books or tuition,” she said.
“The interview is basically like a job interview because you're interviewing for the position of Miss California,” Morse explained. “I’m not nervous but excited and looking forward to it. I loved what I got to do as Miss Garden Grove and other titles.”
The Miss California Pageant is for young unmarried women, as a preliminary to the Miss America contest.
The Miss California competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America pageant.
Delegates from the states of California, Ohio and Oklahoma have each won the title of Miss America six times, more than any of the other states.
