<p>I was a past queen in 2010, and I was honored to compete in this competition. I feel everyone needs to give these ladies a break. Yes there are three of them who run this, so imagine the stress that comes with it. They also are a non-profit organization, so it’s not going to be easy for them to raise a lot of money for the girls to win large scholarships. However, this is a wonderful opportunity! I met so many new girls from all over the country. I was able to go to California and stay in a room with 3 other girls and make new friends. They paid for out accommodations for the state pageant and for the national pageant. We received a tiara at the state pageant and an unbelievably beautiful crown at nationals. We even got to go to Disneyland and have a photo shoot there. All the little kids looked up to us and thought we were princesses. It was a wonderful experience!</p>
<p>I think it’s great that the parents/past queens were judges. This isn’t a pageant like every other pageant. They don’t want a fake girl with a great body, they want the girl-next-door. So who’s better to judge than the past winner’s moms. If their daughter one then they must be the girl-next-dorr type so the moms know what to truly look for. When the girls go to nationals, however, they hire different judges. These judges at Nationals aren’t past queens/or their mothers. These are fashion designers, school superintendents, and owners of disney. </p>
<p>I think these women do so much to try and make this a great experience. I went through it and truly loved it. I think it’s sad that people are criticizing it. This gives Homecoming Queens another chance to pro-long their reins. They get a chance to meet other homecoming queens from all-across the country!</p>
<p>I have to say, I was one of the young ambitious scholarship seekers…I paprticipated…And I must say…this program is sadly pathetic. Not only do they judge, in my opinon, on all the wrong areas, more importantly…they do NOT pay you your “scholarship”. Yes, it is flatterig to be chosen to compete in this “program”, but realize, YOU basically PAY YOUR OWN WAY. To participate you have to PAY OUT OF POCKET some ‘fees’… this program feeds on young, nieve, ambious, talented girls, IT IS A SCAM!!! If I can offer you any advise, it would be to NOT DO IT! Save the money for college. Once I got to college and tried to redeem my “SCHOLARSHIP” I was given the run around, (which I did) and NEVER recieved my check! Waste of time and money. I just keep waiting for them to be sued. I am sure there are many people who share my same situation. On a brighter note. It was fun to go to Disney Land with 50 HS seniors!</p>
<p>You are correct this pageant is a SCAM. My daughter won Ohios Favorite homecoming queen and still has not been awarded her scholarship money. Even after many phone calls and emails. All we received were lies. One lie after another, the money is coming next month, next week in a couple of days etc. It never arrived. So frustrated!</p>
<p>Hi. I am Ciera McNabb from Saint Louis Missouri and I was homecoming of my school this year. I received a letter from my school about AHQ, filled out the form, and sent it in. Today,Feb.11, I got a letter saying that I have been selected from my state to compete in the state competition. I was so excited; I already got a dress for the interview and started thinking about my gown outfit and answering interview questions. Now I feel like a complete idiot. I had a feeling that it was too good to be true and I am so angry that I wasted my time thinking that I had a chance at something great. I thought it would be an experience of a lifetime and something that could really change my future. My heart goes out to all of the girls who had spent so much time and effort just to get their hopes up. I am doing all that I can to notify every school in my state that it is a scam. It is so sad that an organization that is promoting leadership and kindness in the world, is the one who is demoting it… i realize you really cannot trust anything or anyone. Im shocked that these people could get away with something like this for so long, and i hope that the girls who return aren’t brainwashed. BBB needs to get their act together and put an end to something that is fooling innocent girls.</p>
<p>To: PastQueen,
so your saying that its okay to solicit money from your school, friends, and family so that you can go and compete in a competition that doesn’t even give you your scholarship money? its all about the image then. thats a joke. these ladies should go to jail for fooling innocent girls who are trying to make something of their future.</p>
<p>You tell em CC. I was totally bummed for you when I looked into this and realized how much you got your hopes up. Im proud of you for finding a way to vent your frustration through making people aware of this. Your already better than them. Proud dad of cnmcnabb</p>
<p>Who says it is a non-profit? I just checked on Guidestar, which gathers info on NFPs, including their IRS filings, and the closest I saw was American Homecoming Foundaiton Inc., which was founded in 2009. </p>
<p>Dear Ms. Mcnabb – I am sorry you are dissappointed, but kudos to you for checking it out.</p>
<p>I am so proud of the girls who are forthcoming with their comments about AHQ. I see that there have been almost 10,000 views of this thread and that is a good start on getting the word out. Keep telling your stories, and one day, this program and these ladies will get a reckoning, even if it is with their maker. I can say that the lack of scholarship money disbursed to these deserving ladies is the thing that makes me the angriest. The second thing that makes me angry is that these AHQ ladies, do not stand for or live up to the standards they say they want the contestants to live up to. I know a national queen who never got a dime from these scammers and I am so proud of her. If the state queens could not get their money, she did not want hers. The AHQ ladies can keep it, but they will never have class or be able to explain it to God. All of the Homecoming Queens are precious and deserve more than this scam. I speak from the inside. I do want you all to know that The Liberty Bowl people are wonderful and legit, and I hope someday, they break ties with the AHQ organization and take over the queens themselves. In the meantime, keep telling your stories, Homecoming Queens. You might save a sister queen from this organization.</p>
<p>My daughter regularly receives solicitations for pageants and I do exactly what any parent should do: file them in the trash, preferably recycle so we at least do one noteworthy thing with these bait and switch scams. Pay no attention to the trolls who are posting on this thread; they are likely the scammers themselves. I checked out the website after reading this thread and come on, in this day and age it is so over-the-top cheesy. You cannot find any information about costs, etc. No 2012 photos. These individuals should be reported to the IRS and FBI for investigation. Greg Mortenson has finally been made to account for is Central Asia scam a la “Three Cups of Tea.” Our federal government takes these scams seriously and these women (who ARE they, anyway?) should be thrown in jail. Ladies, forget your “shame” if you’ve been conned by these grifters. This is exactly what these ilk depend on.</p>
<p>From IL here: Just wanted to update this thread. I too tend to throw most things away but this group sent it to our school and the school gave it to my daughter…I know I know but she thought she would like to experience it. Needless to say I have contacted our States Attorney and they are sending me the necessary paper work. The initial letter stated what the sponsorship fee paid for but a few days before the pagent, the new paper work had nothing of what the first letter said. We get there and when we asked where they change the woman gave us a room key…to a DIRTY, USED room (her room). They couldn’t even take a few bucks from each girls sponsorship to get a different room. When I asked that same woman about the initial letter, she said that was a letter from two years ago, we got that by mistake. THEN she says we should have gotten a new letter that had REVISED on it…no one got that letter. One girl from a school said the IL winner from last year was from her school and has not yet received her money…this after a full year of college. So the pagent I went up to one of the judges and asked how much does the national winner get. This woman got nervous told me the other judge would know. That judge said the director would know and the director said “We don’t know yet.” I called the number on the sheet and had a very interesting talk with Peggy. Peggy accused me of being upset my daughter didn’t win which could not have been farther from the truth. After we got to the dirty room, she pretty much wanted it to be over. When I told Peggy that it was not professional to put all these girls in a used room, she said that she needed to pay rent…so I googled the address on the letter…golly the head quarters is a 3,800 sq. ft. house! I have contacted the school, and the states attorney. I am a skeptical person by nature and I am not a pagent mom, but my daughter is 18 and I thought even if it was a money maker maybe she would have fun. The exceeded my thoughts on a seedy operation. If the national winner only gets 1,500 and the states get 200 (if they ever get it) where is the rest of this money going? My daughter wanted an experience and she got one…her first SCAM</p>