The Jenks native told her story of the road to Miss America and promoting her platform of intolerance against drunk driving and underage drinking.
Berry has always wanted to be a teacher and has completed her internship. She said the pageant system allowed her to earn more than $30,000 in scholarships.
Miss America’s platform came from an incident in her own personal life. When she was a teenager, a friend named Kristin went to Grand Lake with five other teens. Kristin was killed when the driver, who was drunk, lost control of the car.
“She died from a decision, not from a disease,” Berry said. “That was a hundred percent preventable.”
Berry joined Mothers Against Drunk Driving at age 17. That year, she also won fourth runner-up in her first pageant and “a little scholarship.”
In Berry’s second year of pageant competition, she entered the Miss Oklahoma contest.
“I didn’t win, but I kept working on my platform. I realized I was having an impact in Oklahoma (on teens drinking and driving).”
The third year of her pageant career, Berry again went to the Miss Oklahoma contest.
“Do you think I won? No.
“I had to think about what I was doing. I had spent three years on one goal, and I wasn’t getting there,” Berry said.
“But, I was paying for college with pageants.”
So she entered the Miss Oklahoma pageant a fourth time.
“I didn’t win,” Berry said.
“I’d been third runner-up twice. I wasn’t even getting better! But, I thought, no matter if I won or not I was doing great things for the state.” For those four years she had continued to develop her platform, speaking to groups and students all over the state and helping MADD promote their message.
On the fifth try, Berry won the Miss Oklahoma title.
As Miss Oklahoma, she created a school program called “The Choice is Yours” for elementary school students.
“I challenged first and second graders to learn to make choices for themselves. I went to 85 schools.”
Then Berry won the Miss America title.
“I never went there expecting to win. My goal was to become Miss Oklahoma, so Miss America was just icing on the cake.
“I wanted the judges (at the Miss America pageant) to see my platform is timely and needed,” Berry said.
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