When Lois Elaine Smith-Zoll enters a room, she commands the spotlight.
She has been a force, a character and a community supporter in Clark County since she swept into town in 1965. She has volunteered 50 years for the Miss America pageant on the local, state and national levels. Smith-Zoll will be honored for her volunteerism at the Miss Clark County and Miss Clark County’s Outstanding Teen pageant on Feb. 27.
“Volunteerism is the greatest thing that you can do,” Smith-Zoll said in a recent interview. The 78-year-old Vancouver woman volunteers an average of 60 hours a week as director for scholarship development for the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization. She oversaw $2.5 million worth of in-kind scholarships to universities and colleges in 2016, to schools in 20 states. That means she calls up each and every institution to ask for scholarships. Many say yes.
“The (scholarships) that I don’t have, I keep going back and asking. And if they say no, then I’ll be back next year to haunt you,” she said.
“Scholarships help people, it helps the young women. Everyone needs an education, our scholarship, our success, our style. We’re heavy into STEM research now on the national scene, which I think is marvelous,” she said.
Smith-Zoll is especially proud of the Patriotism Reigns Scholarship, which she created two years ago for teen contestants in her home state of Wisconsin. The scholarship has expanded to Washington, as a tribute to her husband, Edwin Zoll, who died in August. There are plans to expand the scholarship to Oregon this year.
“They have to write a wonderful, very intelligent, essay. These teens, they’re amazing. The last couple years judging them … they’re just amazing,” Smith-Zoll said.
Three-night pageant
“When I started back 50 years ago, I screened down in Clark County from 90 girls, to 30 girls. And I ran a three-night pageant,” Smith-Zoll said.
Her first time judging a local pageant featured 12 contestants, 11 of which were singers. “Well, I was a singer, but I’ve never judged a pageant. So I started; once you start, that’s it.” And that final 12th contestant? “She danced, very poorly. I never will forget it! I had to keep my composure,” said Smith-Zoll.
While she noted that the amount of women participating in the pageant has declined, there’s an increase in teen contestants seeking out scholarships as they look ahead to college.
“I’ve done everything (in the pageant world). I enjoy judging locals and state. I think scholarship development is my forte,” she said.
She also enjoys attending the national contest. While waiting in the press room during the pageant last year, Smith-Zoll told Miss Georgia Betty Cantrell that she was going to win: ” ‘I’ve been around this game a long time. You’re real, you’ve got a God-given voice,’ and she proved it. And she did win. And she’s lovely.”
Smith-Zoll has also been a singer all her life, singing a “patriotic national anthem” at many local venues, sports arenas and most regularly Beavers’ baseball games.
Work ethic
“I have been a singer since I was 6 years old. I came out of a little berg called Clinton, Wis. I grew up on the farm, and I had nothing. Everything that was given to me, I worked for,” she said. Work ethic and volunteerism are the two pillars that Smith-Zoll prizes. They feature heavily in her judging of pageants and in her mentorship of contestants. Smith-Zoll is a tough interview judge, using her experience from behind “the iron curtain” of the pageants to see if the contestants are as real as they appear.
“A question I use all the time, ‘Do we — not do you, but do we — have too much technology in our life?’ And one of my girls said, ‘Yes, and that’s why I’m doing poorly in interview.’ Think about that,” Smith-Zoll said.
Smith-Zoll hopes to see state winners emerge from this year’s Miss Clark County and Miss Clark County Outstanding Teen competitions.
“We need a winner from Clark County. We haven’t had one in six years,” she said.
If You Go: Miss Clark County
What: Miss Clark County and Miss Clark County’s Outstanding Teen pageant.
When: 3 p.m. Feb. 27.
Where: Fort Vancouver High School, 5700 E. 18th St., Vancouver.
Cost: $20, free for ages 6 and younger.
On the Web: www.missclarkcountywa.org
In this year’s pageant, there will be five local Miss contestants ages 17 to 24, and eight Teen contestants, ages 13 to 17. The local branch of the scholarship organization began in 1949, and recently seated a new board of directors and an executive director, Sheri Backous.
What does pageant mean to her? “Everything. It means a livelihood for these young women. It mean scholarship in their life, success in their life, style in their life, perseverance in their life,” she said.
“I perhaps got into this because I had nothing as a child. I had a God-given voice, someone put, and to this day I do not know, put a voice scholarship in for me to go to (Milton College School of Music). They paid for it. And I never knew who that person was,” said Smith-Zoll. “And I thought, scholarship is important. It helped me with my background and my career. And that’s how I got started. And that’s perhaps the reason I got into scholarship. The full circle.”
