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PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. When Kristi Hey isnt taking time to participate in beauty pageants, shes making sure that the streets of Westchester County are safe and secure.
Most other pageant contestants are in career paths of education and stuff like that, Hey said. People in my profession dont usually walk into the public light very often.
Hey, originally from Terryville, Conn. and a current graduate student at Pace University, is an employee at the U.S. Probation Office for the Southern District of New York in White Plains. Hey works on computers that monitor the activity of registered sex offenders in the area. Her career goal is to one day work for the FBI in the cyber division of homeland security. In her spare time, Hey participates in local Miss America pageants, most recently competing in the Mrs. Connecticut competition earlier this month where she placed in the top ten. Her desire for pageantry was one that came about unexpectedly.
When I was around a sophomore in high school I randomly received something in the mail about a small local pageant and I thought why not enter? Hey said. And ever since then Ive been hooked.
Heys pageant work goes beyond just dressing up and looking nice. She is heavily involved with the awareness group F.A.D.D.D, Families Against Destructive Driving Decisions. This upcoming March, she is planning and organizing a 5K race in her hometown in memory of a high school friend who lost their life in a fatal car accident.
Between her full time job at the probation office, school and pageant work, the 23-year-old admits it is difficult to balance everything.
At times it feels like it is non-stop, Hey said. I definitely have to manage my time well or it becomes overwhelming,
Hey also recently married her college boyfriend in August, whom she met while they both studied at Pace in their undergraduate days. She says that for now, participating in pageants may need to take the back seat.
Pageants are something that I might still want to pursue down the road, but for now I really just want to settle down, Hey said.
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