Melissa Maria Festa: A contestant we can all support

Melissa Maria Festa, ‘Mrs. Highlands’ will be competing for the ‘Mrs. New Jersey’ crown this weekend at the annual Mrs New Jersey United States pageant in Mays Landing.

A 2006 Monmouth University graduate, Melissa is one of eight married New Jersey women competing to represent the Garden State in the Mrs. United States pageant this July in Las Vegas.

Melissa Maria Festa teaching Spinning class.

A fitness instructor and model, Melissa, 31, is competing in her first pageant. After Superstorm Sandy destroyed so much of her hometown, Highlands, she was moved to find a vehicle from which she could contribute to the rebuilding and recovery. Her platform is Restoring the Shore: Hope for Highlands.

Melissa was WRAT 95.9’s 2011 RAT Rock Girl. She teaches Spinning at Eastpointe Fitness in Atlantic Highlands and is a Red Carpet Host for Jersey Shore Premiere Events.

Since Sandy hit, Melissa has been hard at work bringing happiness to the lives her Highlands neighbors who have suffered mightily. She promoted Operation Prom to make sure Henry Hudson Regional High School female students will have nice dresses to wear at their prom this weekend. Melissa and her sister Amanda appeared in an Anderson Live segment, Do car dealers rip off women in March.

The Mrs. New Jersey pageant is on Saturday, May 11, 7PM, at the Walter Edge Theater at Atlantic Cape May Community College.

We’re pulling for Melissa Maria!