Fifteen young women from across the state arrived in Greenville last night to prepare for an action-packed weekend in the City of Smiles, as they gear up for the Miss Greater Greenville Scholarship Program, an official Miss Alabama/Miss America preliminary.

&uot;We are so excited about this weekend, and hope everyone has a wonderful time here in our wonderful city,&uot; says Sue Arnold, Miss Greater Greenville Scholarship Board Director.

The young women will vie for the title of Miss Greater Greenville and with it, an official Miss Alabama Preliminary crown, a $1,000 scholarship and a host of gifts from local merchants.

First, second and third runners-up will receive scholarship monies and/or gifts and flowers.

In addition, the individual swimsuit and talent winners will each receive a trophy.

An evening orientation session kicked off at 5 p.m. at the Ritz on Friday night.

Miss Greater Greenville 2004, Melinda Toole, was on hand with Arnold and her fellow board members to meet and greet the program hopefuls.

Rehearsals got underway for the contestants and lights and sound checks were performed to make sure &uot;A Black Tie Affair&uot; goes off smoothly tonight.

Following breakfast on Saturday morning, the young women will be interviewed individually by the panel of judges. This is an opportunity for each Miss Greater Greenville candidate to show off her personality, self-confidence and communication skills.

She will also have the chance to share her platform – the important social issue she plans to champion as title holder – with the panel of evaluators.

Each contestant will also be judged on artistic expression in talent (30%), lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit (10%), presence and poise in evening wear (10%) and overall composite (10%).

Saturday evening’s program is slated to kick off at 7 p.m. at the Ritz Theatre. Ralph Stacy will serve as the emcee for the evening, assisted by Toole, who will share her considerable vocal talents as part of the evening’s entertainment.

Tickets for the event are $5 each and will be available at the door.

To learn more about the Miss Greater Greenville Scholarship Program, please see inside today’s Advocate for a special supplement.