The word “pageant” has long conjured fairly predictable imagery: pretty young girls wearing fancy dresses and megawatt smiles. But the mission of the Miss Stafford Pageant – a tradition of the annual Founder’s Day celebration since 1964 – is to cultivate confident, productive young women who care about each other and the community.

Until the early 1990s, contestants paraded down Main Street in high heels and swimsuits, according to Jessica Austin Higgins, pageant director of the last 13 years.