Miss Virginia contestant, Staunton resident Jaclyn Oakes advocates skin cancer prevention

An emotional Jaclyn Oakes reacts after winning the Miss Southwestern Virginia contest in April.

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Jaclyn Oakes has spent the past week at the Hotel Roanoke and the Roanoke Civic Center with 26 other statewide contestants for Saturday’s Miss Virginia Pageant, talking with judges, attending meet-and-greets, attending dinners, all while remaining poised and ever aware of her role in this event that is one step away from the Miss America Pageant.

In April this Randolph-Macon College student who was a 2012 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton and the Shenandoah Valley Governor’s School in Fishersville won the Miss Southwestern Virginia pageant. Her talent was dance, and her platform was “Charlie’s Cure: Bringing Awareness to the Dangers of Skin Cancer.”

Jaclyn Oakes, young lady behind ‘Charlie’s Cure,’ will compete in Miss Virginia Pageant

An emotional Jaclyn Oakes reacts after winning the Miss Southwestern Virginia contest Friday night in Roanoke.

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Jaclyn Oakes, a 2012 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton and the Shenandoah Valley Governor’s School in Fishersville, and a junior at Randolph-Macon College, won the Miss Southwestern Virginia pageant Friday night in Roanoke. Her talent was dance, and her platform was “Charlie’s Cure: Bringing Awareness to the Dangers of Skin Cancer.”