OCEAN CITY — Miss Ocean City 2024 Lola DeMarco said this has been the best year of her life. She will be sad to see it end this Saturday, when she crowns her successor on the stage at the Music Pier.
While looking back at all the fun she had, she is also looking ahead.
The 2024 Ocean City High School graduate said she gets speechless every time she thinks about being crowned last August.
“It was literally the best feeling in the world. I look back and every single photo of that night is my favorite photo of me because you can see the pure joy on my face,” she said last week. “It was the best night of my life, by far. It means so much to me that the town entrusted me with this honor. It was the best year of my life and it means everything to me.”
DeMarco had competed in Little Miss Ocean City and Junior Miss Ocean City before winning the Miss Ocean City title, but it took a little convincing for her to compete.
“I could not have done this without my family. My older sister, Shea, was the one who convinced me to do that pageant. It wasn’t even on my radar,” she said. “I was busy with work and babysitting. I worked three jobs every summer up until this summer, but my sister said I should try. She said, ‘You could be Miss Ocean City.’”
She also was taking a cooking class with Miss Ocean City 2023 Grace Oves.
“I asked her if I should do it. She said it was the best experience so I should at least try. They convinced me to do it and I never expected to win on first try,” she said.
If it’s not already obvious, she was glad she did.
The best part of her year was serving with Junior Miss Ocean City Sarah Avellino and Little Miss Ocean City Stella Fleming. The Little Miss and Junior Miss pageants are scheduled for Aug. 16 and 17, respectively, at the Music Pier.
“Spending the year with them was so much fun. I never would have got to know them if I wasn’t Miss Ocean City. I wouldn’t have gotten to know such wonderful girls,” she said.
DeMarco enjoyed the parades and said the Night in Venice boat parade scored a “10 out of 10” and “was definitely my favorite.”
She liked what she called “the hermit crab that was like Groundhog Day.” (That’s when city officials check to see if hermit crab Martin Z. Mollusk sees his shadow to herald an early start to summer. If the sun isn’t shining, they carry a flashlight to make sure he does.)
“I thought that was such a fun, silly event.”
She also enjoyed judging contests. Ocean City has a lot of family-friendly competitions for residents and visitors during the summer such as french fry and taffy sculpting and pie-eating.
“Judging contests was so much fun, too. Getting to pick who wins, that’s crazy. I don’t judge things. That was so awesome to do,” she said.
DeMarco said judging the taffy sculpting was easiest because it was all about who put in the most effort, depending on the age group, and created the most interesting work.
The hardest? Pie-eating.
“You had to be watching everyone, especially with the adults. Some of them would finish half their pie and say, ‘I won!’ And I’d say, ‘No, you have to finish it.’”
She, Sarah and Stella competed against one another in the pie-eating.
“Me and Stella were on the same page, trying to eat as much as possible (but) Sarah was really trying to play to win and it was just so funny because Sarah is like the least competitive, sweetest girl you’ve ever met in your life. She is literally like an angel sent from above, so I was shocked when I saw the competitiveness from her,” DeMarco said, laughing.
This past year at OCHS, DeMarco was the cheer captain with her best friend since fourth grade, Livia Leonetti, leading the cheers at all the basketball games.
“We’ve been attached at the hip and we got to be cheer captains together. That was amazing,” she said. The other school event she enjoyed was prom. “I went with my friends instead of a date, which was way better.”
While some people look fondly back on their days in high school, don’t expect that of DeMarco.
“I’m definitely not a school person,” she said. “As soon as I got out of there I left and didn’t look back.”
But she is looking ahead.
The day after she crowns her successor, DeMarco is off to Tampa, Fla., where she will attend cosmetology school, putting to use skills she’s been honing since she was a little girl.
“I am so excited. I’ve always (thought about going) to college and living in a dorm, having the college experience, but I always knew I wanted to go to cosmetology school.
“I’ve been doing my makeup and my hair since I was like, literally 5 years old, when I got to school in kindergarten with lipstick on,” she said. “A couple girls I know from Little Miss recently said they remembered me doing their makeup backstage. I said that sounds like me. I was always like that.
“When anyone, any family member asked, they were like, ‘So is it college or cosmetology school?’ It was never which college I was going to. Everyone kind of knew, so that made me feel better. I’m so excited.”
She starts the program Aug. 13.
DeMarco noted she could not have done this past year without her father, Phillip “Jamie” DeMarco. (She lost her mother to cancer the year before she was crowned.)
She remembered how she always forgot to bring blankets when she was in the parades, including the chilly Christmas and Halloween events. Her dad was there to make sure she didn’t get cold.
He was also there for her farewell photo shoot by the base of the Ocean City-Longport Bridge. When she wanted some of her photos taken on the base of the bridge, which the tide was starting to surround with water, her dad picked her up and carried her there to keep her gown from getting wet. And when she was done, she hopped on his back, prompting a big smile from him as he put her safely back on the sand.
“I’m not looking forward to the pageant,” she said. “I’m so sad my time (as Miss Ocean City) is coming to an end.”
– STORY and PHOTO by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff