STANDISH, Maine — For months now, Ronnie Druchniak (her name is Veronica, but her friends and family rarely call her that) has driven to an old and weathered barn at Douglas Hill Orchard in Sebago, climbed to the loft, set up a hoop that hangs from a beam overhead, hoisted herself up, and then worked with unwavering focus and intensity to sharpen her aerial routine.
"I first started doing aerial arts during 2020 in the pandemic," Druchniak said. "My best friend bought a portable aerial rig for her backyard and that was how we could socialize."
What used to be fun has turned into serious business. This is the routine that Ronnie, who’s 27 and from Standish, will display to the world in the talent portion when she represents Maine this month in the Miss America pageant.
"I still don’t think I have the full hang of it," she acknowledged after a slip on the aerial hoop. "But that’s what learning something new is about—trying and failing, and trying and failing, and enjoying.”
If the Miss America pageant brings to mind visions of glitz and sparkle and tiaras, this setting is about as far from that world as one can get. Ronnie has no coach, no support team (although her mom holds the ladder as Ronnie attaches the hoop to the beam), and the barn where she practices doesn’t even have heat. The day we visited it was a bracing 35 degrees inside.
Ronnie ought to stand out at the Miss America pageant because, she said, she’ll be the only contestant performing an aerial routine. It’s also safe to say she’s the only one of the entrants who’s been honing her talent act in an unheated barn in an orchard on a hillside overlooking the White Mountains.
"I don’t think," she said dryly, "it’s quite as cold where Miss Texas is working."