ASHLAND, Ky. — Attention all beauty queens, leave your aerosol hairspray and sunless tanner at home, but don’t forget your sunscreen and bug repellent.

In celebration of Armed Forces Day, the Miss Tri-State Program has adopted a platoon and will be hosting a pageant as a fundraiser in honor of our men and women overseas at 4 p.m. Saturday May 21 at “Park Place” in Ashland, Ky.

The pageant has chosen to participate in “Operation Don’t Bug Me,” a campaign hosted by the Adopt-a-Platoon Organization, which is a volunteer based non-profit 501C-3 dedicated to serving deployed U.S. service men and women ensuring that they are not forgotten by a grateful nation.

Adopt-a-Platoon provides an on-going mail support system, creates projects that meet the need of military requests, and establishes special projects that benefit deployed troops representing all branches of the U.S. military.

The campaign we have chosen encourages Americans to collect items such as bug spray, lip balm and sun lotion for our troops overseas.

Don’t forget to bring your unwrapped Christmas presents either because we will re-gift them for you. A silent auction will also be taking place during the event and we are accepting any and all items.

Awards will be given to the contestants who bring in most items for both “Operation Don’t Bug Me” and the silent auction. Proceeds from the pageant, admissions and silent auction will assist in covering the shipping and handling of the “Operation Don’t Bug Me” items as well as a monetary donation that will be given to the Adopt-a-Platoon Organization.

Although our focus is the military, contestants leave your combat boots at home.

The pageant will consists of three categories, photogenic, casual wear and formal wear. All we ask is that you keep it natural, false hair and teeth are not welcome.

We will crown Queens in the following categories:

Baby (up to 11 months), Princess ( 4-5), Jr. Teen ( 12-14), Tiny (one year old), Sweetheart ( 6-8), Teen ( 15-18), Tot (2-3), Pre-Teen ( 9-11), Woman (19-29 married or single), and a king and prince in the categories Little Mr. ( 0-3 years) and Prince ( 4-8 years).

Applications and a breakdown of pageant fees can be found on their facebook page, Miss Tri-State PageantQueen or by email at misstristatepageant66@yahoo.com.