In 2013, the Miss NY Local, a preliminary for girls in New York City, was founded. Initially, there would only be two titles: Miss New York City and Miss Cosmopolitan. However, the night of the pageant, they made an announcement; they would also be crowing Miss Metropolitan.

The first set of titleholders, Melissa Phillips; Metropolitan, Acacia Courtney; New York City, Kira Kazantsev; Cosmopolitan realized that their initials spell out “MAK”, resulting in the formation of what is still called today, The Big Mak Dreamers.

The Dreamers competed at Miss New York, 2013 where 2/3 made it to the Top 10 Finals. Acacia performed a classical ballet for her talent, and Kira sang the original Cup Song. Acacia even advanced, and landed a spot in the Top 5.

This year, Kira decided she wanted to stay with the NY Local Board of Directors, and competed again. Although she was not eligible for the Miss Cosmopolitan title, she was eligible for either Miss New York City or Miss Metropolitan. To her pleasure, she went home with the Miss New York City 2013 title.

Preparing for the state pageant is stressful enough. Unfortunately, during Acacia’s reign, she was attacked online by an unknown international pageant system unaffiliated with the Miss America Organization that had copywrited the title “Miss New York City”. When Kira won the title, she was unaware of this issue. Before she knew it, she was being sued for nearly $10,000. A week before Miss New York, Kira paid for a new sash that read Miss City of New York. This would eliminate the copywrite and drop the charges. The sash arrived on the day of the pageant, and she would never actually need to wear it.

Although Melissa Phillips did not compete this year, the Big MAK Dreamers stayed tight. They travel to each others events, to support their NY Local Sisterhood and remain close friends.

Of course this friendship meant that Acacia, after winning the title of Miss Hamden in Connecticut, would make her way back to Staten Island to watch Kira compete for Miss New York. She had competed on that very stage twice before, and knew first hand the stress and pressures of competing, as well as the support power of having a friend in the audience. When Kira’s name was called, Acacia possibly cheered the loudest. It was a Dreamer’s Dream come true.

A few weeks later, Acacia was competing for the title of Miss Connecticut. She had won a Lifestyle and Fitness preliminary award, such as in the past. She didn’t hold her breath for the crown, the competition was strong. But alas, when the Final Five were called, she earned the Miss Connecticut crown.

So now, Atlantic City, this means that two of the original Big MAK Dreamers, two former Miss New York Citys Miss City of New Yorks, will be competing on the Miss America stage. The last time they competed together on the same state, The girl crowned Miss New York took the Miss America crown.

Does this mean they will be the Last two standing? We can dream…