She came in the ordinary way, as a contestant, in the early 2000s. The return trip was less ordinary. In 2021 she had a daughter, and when the girl began competing, Pendery found herself back in the ballroom on the other side of the rail — this time with a background in event planning, volunteering and community involvement, and an eye for how a pageant is actually run.
What she saw sent her out to build rather than to enter. "I wanted to create a system that could be for everyone," she says — and she started it from nothing.
We started from scratch to build a system that everyone can feel comfortable competing in.
Ask her what she is proudest of and she does not reach for a crowd size or a crown. She names the integrity of the system, and the work done behind closed doors — the part of directing the audience never sees and was never meant to.
