Parkersburg connection needed

Once again the Miss Parkersburg Homecoming Festival and Miss Teen Homecoming Festival are not from Parkersburg, which would be all fine and good if they were from Parkersburg and merely going to college somewhere else, but that's not the case ... again.

This time Miss Parkersburg Homecoming is from Buckhannon and the runnerup is from Parkersburg. Miss Teen Homecoming is from Spencer with the runnerup is from Mineral Wells.

Maybe the Homecoming Festival should rename its contest "Miss-From-Anywhere-Other-Than-Parkersburg Homecoming."

I certainly don't have anything against the Homecoming winner or the teen winner, nor for anyone residing in Buckhannon or Spencer, but the festival is Parkersburg's Homecoming and it only seems logical the winners should have a direct connection to Parkersburg.

If the winners were from Vienna or Williamstown and attended high school in Parkersburg that would be a legitimate connection. If the winner were from Parkersburg, had family living here, had recently moved away and returned here to visit family and friends, maybe then I could see them having a "homecoming" connection.

But the way it is, calling it "Parkersburg" homecoming and teen homecoming seem like misnomers.