Special on aisle 5 — Miss America

Special on aisle 5 — Miss America Reigning pageant queen at San Ramon Longs Drugs to promote perfume By Paul Burgarino, STAFF WRITER

Miss America 2006, Jennifer Berry, made an appearance at Longs Drugs in San Ramon today to autograph bottles of "Pageantry", a fragrance designed for the Miss America pageant. Here, she poses for a photo with Leeann Schierburg (left) and a bottle of the perfume. SAN RAMON — Most trips to the store do not involve any sort of pageantry. However, those who walked into one local drugstore Tuesday were surprised to see the current Miss America at the end of the greeting card aisle. Jennifer Berry, the 2006 Miss America, was at the Longs Drugs on San Ramon Valley Boulevard on Tuesday as part of tour to promote a perfume designed for the Miss America Scholarship Fund. The Tulsa, Okla., native posed for pictures, signed bottles of perfume and gave advice to young girls interested in her participation in beauty contests. Throughout the visit, camera phones and disposable cameras were snapping photos of the beauty queen as Longs employees and shoppers looked on. I think this is an honor for the residents of San Ramon, store manager Jerry Walton said. I thought it was just fantastic and we were really excited that our store was chosen to be a part of it. Walton heard about the visit Thursday and immediately created decorative signs to place around the plaza. I saw the sign and figured there was no way I was going to miss this opportunity, said Gene Keller of Danville, an avid Miss America Pageant watcher. This is a treat. Marie Skaf of Hayward works at Levys Bagels & Co. next door to the Longs Drugs. She says she noticed the signs and rushed over as soon as her shift was over. She was very nice, very friendly, she said. The perfume smelled good, too. Some young girls were afraid to talk to the visitor, but they were quickly coaxed into meeting Berry. (She) told me that if I wanted to, then I should definitely try going to a pageant, said Maddie Quillin, a sixth-grader at Iron Horse Middle School. It may be a simple thing like going to a drugstore and talking to people, but sometimes you can really impact people in a way more than you think you can, Berry said. Berry, 23, was visiting Northern California for the first time and said she had hoped to see the house used in filming the television show Full House in San Francisco. She is pursuing a masters degree in education at the University of Oklahoma. Pageantry Perfume — which smells like a mix of fruit and flowers, Longs employees said — is sold exclusively at Longs Drugs in California, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Miss America Scholarship Fund. Bob Aliano, creator of the perfume, concocted other famous fragrances such as Giorgio of Beverly Hills, Red and Hugo. Berry will be stopping today at the Longs Drugs on Camino Tassajara in Danville, and at California Boulevard and Bancroft Road locations in Walnut Creek as part of the promotional tour. Paul Burgarino can be reached at (925) 416-4863 or pburgarino@trivalleyherald.com. Source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_3883011

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