In November 2024, Maianna Taylor finally achieved something her heart longed for. Nerves overwhelmed her body while she stood on stage as one of two contestants remaining in the Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition — a title she had tried to win three times prior.
With the bright lights shining on her, Maianna’s heart beat, and her lip quivered as they announced the winner. Maianna’s name was called. Stunned and excited, she was crowned in front of a cheering audience and took her walk onstage as the new 2025 Miss Kona Coffee.
“It was just kind of the sense of, like, wow. Did that really just happen?” says Maianna. “It was super exciting, and it was just, like, a high of my life, I would say.”
The Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition is held annually during the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival. Women, ages 18-28, can enter to vie for the title of Miss Kona Coffee and Miss Aloha Hawai’i. The winners then compete for Miss Hawai’i as part of the Miss America Organization. There is also a teen competition where girls ages 14-18 can compete for Miss Teen Kona Coffee.
However, the competition is more than just a beauty pageant. Contestants learn life skills such as public speaking, time management, and organization that they can use to gain confidence and serve their community. They also become part of a sisterhood and fulfill the four points of the crown: style, scholarship, service, and success.
“The judges really want to see who you are as a woman when you're up there. It's not about how pretty you are or how good your extensions are. It's about who you are at the end of the day,” says Maianna.
“It's paving the way for the future,” adds Ally Brown, executive director of the Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition.
The contest day begins with a ten-minute private interview before a panel of judges. The competitors then get glammed up to compete for the title later that evening.
They'll participate in multiple categories, including the on-stage question, health and fitness, talent, and evening gown. Then, various scholarship awards are given out for the different categories in addition to the awards for community service, miss popularity, people’s choice, miss congeniality, and who takes the crown.
“We're one of the largest local preliminary awards. We give the most,” says Brown.
Another big part of the Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition is the community service initiative each contestant creates to impact Kona positively.
Maianna’s initiative is called Reading Seeds, and her goal is to grow literacy in the community. She says this idea was inspired by her father, an avid reader who passed away in 2020.
Maianna wants to establish little libraries in Kona where anyone can get a book in their community and institute a reward-based program for reading in schools.
Whether it’s attending an event, growing their community service initiative, or putting on a pretty gown to be featured in a parade — the life skills and lessons gained through the Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition aim to help young Kona women become confident and successful individuals in the future.
“I know some people see a pretty girl in a crown, but it is truly an organization that seeks to promote women and community service, and we all work together to try to achieve that,” says Maianna. “I think the Miss Kona Coffee organization focuses on uplifting women and trying to uplift our community.”
To learn more about the Miss Kona Coffee Organization, visit MissKonaCoffee.org.
It's about who you are at the end of the day.