Chet Welch likes to say the road to Miss America begins in Ford City. The Bethel resident isn't exaggerating. The 1978 graduate of Ford City High School coaches beauty pageant contestants as a pastime. He has mentored nine Miss Pennsylvanians, including four who have made it into the semifinals of the Miss America pageant. One woman was second runner-up. For some of the women, the path begins on the stage at Ford City High School, where Welch is executive director of the annual Miss Armstrong County/Miss Southwestern PA pageant in the fall. Winners then can advance to state and national competition. While millions watch from their homes Saturday as another Miss American pageant is televised nationally, Welch will be in the storied Atlantic City auditorium for the 15th year, where it will unfold live in front of him. Once again, he has a special interest in being there. Candace Otto, a Shady Side Academy graduate and Murrysville resident whom Welch mentored to the Miss Pennsylvania title, is representing the state in the legendary pageant. It did begin for Otto in Ford City, where she was crowned Miss Three Rivers, another of the titles for which women can compete on the school stage. Welch, 43, has mentored the past six Miss Pennsylvanias in a row. It is an unpaid position for the pharmaceutical customer-service representative and animal lover, who has shown horses, cows and sheep at county fairs. (Yes, Welch says, he has heard the jokes.) “I am still kind of amazed where all this had led me, especially Miss America,” he says. “Sometimes, I feel like I shouldn't be here.” He does his job well, say those who have taken his guidance or worked with him. “He works hard at promoting and polishing the image of beauty pageants,” says Susan Spafford, Miss Pennsylvania 1999 and the second runner-up to Miss America that year. “He has an eye for talent, and has a genuine interest in helping young women from western Pennsylvania win,” adds Marlene Wynne, executive producer of the Miss Pennsylvania pageant. Welch guided her daughter, Marla, to the Miss Pennsylvania title in 1990. “I like to make people feel good about themselves and really build self-confidence within themselves,” Welch says. “It gives me satisfaction to watch someone win and walk that runway, knowing, a year ago, they may have been afraid to talk to me on the phone, and here they are Miss Pennsylvania.” He trains contestants in a variety of disciplines, including how to walk and talk on stage, as well as talent and interview preparation, fashion, cosmetics, posture and every aspect that may be judged. Some contestants come to him after winning a state qualifier. He then makes the decision about whether he wants to be their mentor. Factors include what he sees as a contestant's potential, her desire and the time he has available. “These young women are polished and are contenders. They've been working for this moment all their lives. I just help them recognize it,” he says. He evaluates their strengths and weaknesses, insists they keep up on current events and assists each contestant in deciding whether she needs a voice or another type of coach. “Exercise, exercise, exercise,” is one of his mantras. What some find interesting is that Welch essentially is self-trained. He long has had an interest in music, but has no formal training in theater, dance, fashion or other areas in which he offers advice. His mother, the late Alfreda Welch, was very fashion conscious. “I grew up in that atmosphere,” he recalls. He watched a lot of pageant video tapes, learned what worked and what didn't, even as he made mistakes, and met a lot of people in the pageant industry who offered advice and assistance. Now, he has a designer in New York City who makes gowns for his contestants, a swimsuit manufacturer in Oklahoma who tailors to his contestants' measurements and other specialists across the country on whose talents he can draw. “People have helped me along the way,” he says. “When I don't know something, I go out and ask.” He also travels and judges other pageants, which is part of the education process for him. Welch believes his strength comes in his vision. “I can foresee what things are going to look like. I can look at an outfit or talent and see how it will work or fare among the judges. I can have a vision for it,” he explains. He came into the field in the early '80s as a member of the Kittanning Jaycees, working behind the scenes with the Miss Armstrong County pageant. “I got more interested in it and started going to Miss America (pageants). I liked the idea how someone was taken, and the best was made of them to go on to the next level of competition.” He believes women come to him, because he tries to be honest. “I tell them we have to be very honest with each other or else we won't get to where we want to. If they like something, or don't like something, they have to tell me. I can't tell them to wear blue if they don't like the color. They won't feel good in it. It's the same as you and I. We feel better in a favorite pair of jeans. It's the same in the talent selection. There can't be anything in there they are worried about.” Welch has a good ear for music and an ability to assess how a piece will work. “I don't like going with normal songs. I like giving something a new twist. It seems to work very well.” He appreciates the evolution of Miss America and other pageants from more than just beauty contests. “You have to be able to speak, have a head on your shoulders, intelligence, and be very goal-oriented. Any one of these girls is somebody you would want to be your daughter, your sister or another relative. They are very put together people.” The learning process is ongoing, he says. “There's such an emphasis on the interview portion now. Beauty and talent only get you so far. If you can't speak and don't have a mind, you can only get so far.” He has an interview coach in Texas on whom he calls. Each Miss America contestant has to have a platform to speak about and work for, he says. Otto's is poverty awareness. He says he helps with suggestions for platforms to the extent that he is able. “A lot of it is getting them with the right contacts,” he says.The women Welch mentors keep in touch with him. He feels like a brother. “Every time one gets married, I do something in their wedding,” he says. Welch cares for people, “whether they are clients or pretty contestants” says Connie Klug, a co-worker at Omnicare Long Term Care Pharmacy in Crafton. “The pageant is his baby,” she adds. “He takes us to meet the girls; he lets us touch the gowns. People come in just to see his desk. It's loaded with photos of him with beauty queens.” He has had supportive friends and co-workers through the years, Welch says. “A lot of friends do help me.” The best advice he can give a contestant? “They need to be themselves and show the judges that they are what they come here to find,” Welch says. “They need to walk out with the attitude of ‘I'm the one you came here to find. Crown me now.' You have to walk out with confidence. It's amazing how that can work.” Welch admits he was “kind of numb” when he sat in the Miss America audience in 1999 and saw three women standing on stage, one of them his “student,” Spafford, waiting to find out who would be crowned. “It was something I hadn't experienced before. I had nothing to do except watch. She very easily could have won.” She did win more than $40,000 worth of scholarship money. Women he has mentored have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships, a source of pride for Welch. He says all nine of the Miss Pennsylvanians he mentored graduated from college “pretty much debt free.” When someone he coaches wins a title, Welch, in his own way, feels like a winner, too. “It gives you satisfaction you've done everything right,” he says. “It's a nice feeling.”He rates Otto's chances as very good. “She is very put together,” he says. How long does Welch plan to stay involved with pageants? That's easy, he implies “ 'Til I get a Miss America.” Winners can make change for better Chet Welch remembers always being mesmerized with the concept of Miss America. “Corn Fakes always had the winner on the box,” the Bethel resident recalls of boyhood visits to the grocery store. “I made my mother buy it every year, even though I didn't like Corn Flakes. If my mother didn't buy it, I'd get my grandmother to do that.” Now that he is, in many ways, inside the pageant, he remains fascinated. “It's a mystery to a lot of people on where these women come from, the selection process, who she is, is she actually a tangible person. I've become friends with quite a few through the years.” While he sees both sides of the debate about pageants, Welch believes Miss America remains valid. It is not about objectifying women, he says. “The last few have made a big impact beyond beauty; they are dealing with challenging topics that, maybe, one time would have been taboo and they wouldn't even consider: sexual abstinence and awareness, diversity, topics that weren't always normally discussed around the table. “I know what these girls are made of. They are very intelligent. You see more there than just a good body and talent. The general audience wants to consider it a beauty pageant. This has been a reality show for almost 80 years. This is where a girl who is not known today is known tomorrow by America. This is the original reality TV show. I think people, with all of their problems, they want to see it that way. They want to see somebody's dreams come true. The girls say ‘Some day I want to be Miss America.' It is a dream come true for them.” While Welch is in Atlantic City, N.J., all week, he will have no in-person contact with Miss Pennsylvania, Candace Otto, whom he is coaching, until after the pageant. “We can go to rehearsal, but there is no contact. They feel at this point the job of coaches and mentors should be done. They want to see the true girl. I have seen people and family members confusing them. At this point, they need to do what they need to do. She is a very smart person and can handle any situation that comes up right now.” He is permitted to converse with Otto this week on the phone. “I'll be observing and keeping my eyes and ears open (at pageant gatherings) and start learning for next year, as well as picking up ideas from other people,” he says. “If I can give Candace ideas, I will.”Welch does not plan to deliver a pep talk, but he will review a few points for her to remember and consider. “I usually end my conversations saying, ‘You know what you need to do.' Win or lose, I know she put her heart and soul into it, and I wouldn't change things she's done. I don't think she would, either.” A new group of women will take the road toward Miss America Oct. 18 and 19 at the Miss Armstrong County, Miss Southwestern Pennsylvania and other pageants at Ford City High School. Welch can be reached at 724-763-3717 or 1-800-321-5458 (work), or e-mail ed@misswesternpa .org . Additional Information:

Coach promotes animal adoption

Like the contestants he mentors, Chet Welch has his platform. The Bethel resident uses his work with and travel for pageants to promote adoption of homeless, abused and unwanted animals. ?My first love is with animals,• he says. ?Growing up, I lived in the country, and there weren?t a lot of kids my age. I always had animals with me. For years, I felt more comfortable around them than people. Pageants helped me there. I was always quite shy.? Sharing his residence and property near Crooked Creek Park are a pair of dogs and cats, ducks, geese, sheep and a rabbit. The subject of animal adoption from shelters is important, he says, ?because someone has to speak for them.• ?The animals have done nothing wrong.? As he speaks, one of the two dogs he adopted from the Animal Rescue League barks as if in agreement. • Rex Rutkoski, staff writer

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