A parade of boy scouts, parents and pageant directors entered the loading dock of the Vicksburg Convention Center Sunday morning to deliver the contestant’s belongings to the dressing room.

The volunteer dressing room staff welcomed them into the room and guided them to their contestant’s vanity.

“This morning it’s an ugly little room and then by the time the girls get here at 10 a.m. it’ll come to life and be a second home for a week,” Director of the Dressing Room Carolyn Walker said.

Walker made sure everyone was working efficiently and no one’s items were taking up too much space. This is her eleventh year in the director position for the dressing rooms.

“Normally either parents or their pageant director come in, they drop off all their clothes and get them set up in their stations and then at 10 o’clock the girls come down and we’ll begin rehearsals,” Walker said.

The contestants are separated from their families the entire week, except for a brief amount of time on the nights of the preliminary competitions once they’ve concluded. Walker and the rest of her staff act as everything- mom, nurse, guide and support system- during pageant week.

“If the girls are in the building, we’re in the building making sure they’re dressed, they’re on time, they’re where they need to be when they need to be,” Walker said.

The contestants also have hostesses, local volunteers, which can be called on if the girls need anything.

Walker said, contrary to popular belief, the girls aren’t divas. She sees them as daughters during rehearsals in their ponytails with no make-up on their faces. Being around the contestants every day and getting to know them is her favorite part of being the dressing room director.

“Everybody sees these glamorous girls on-stage and what they’re like on stage, but we get to see what they’re really like,” Walker said. “We get to know their true spirits.”

Walker’s right-hand has been Jessica Collins for five years; however, Collins has been volunteering at the pageant for 11 years. She helps supply the girls with candy and coloring books to pass the time and calm their nerves.

“It’s really a fun experience,” Collins said. “It’s really great getting to know the girls.”

Walker stressed that 99 percent of the people working on the pageant are volunteers who take off from their jobs and use their vacation time to serve sometimes 15-hour days.

About six boys from Boy Scout Troop 102, who have been helping deliver the contestants wardrobes for as long as anyone can remember, helped carry the contestant’s dresses, shoes, robes, talent props, jewelry, make-up, hairspray, weights and plastic containers filled with pageant gear, into the dressing room.

In years past, the wardrobe move-in has been a high-energy hectic event, but this year started off slow and ended a little behind schedule. Wardrobes began arriving at 7:45 a.m., with a small rush happening about an hour later and continued to show up 20 minutes after schedule.

During wardrobe drop-off the contestants were upstairs doing their final registration and orientation including a devotional led by Matt Buckles of First Baptist Church of Vicksburg. They also heard from Mayor George Flaggs, Jr.

The girls then had to turn in their cellphones for the rest of the day, just like they’ll do every day of pageant week.

Once that was completed, the contestants went down to the dressing room to organize their vanity areas and to change out of their dresses and into their rehearsal clothes.

The rest of the day was spent rehearsing their opening number and introductions, among other dance routines, with hour-long breaks for lunch and dinner.