HAWAIIAN STYLE
Will one of them walk off with the prize?
Lovely hula ... feet?
Photo courtesy T.J. Swafford
Sorry, R. Alex Anderson — your song "Lovely Hula Hands" notwithstanding, people are logging on to the Web to vote by the thousands in "The World's Most Beautiful Feet Contest."
Jennie Lee of Kailua, left, and Emily Gardner of Hawai'i Kai are among the 10 finalists in an Internet contest to find the woman with the world's most beautiful feet. When online voting is over, the winner will be named Sept. 22.
That's right. Fabulous feet. Tremendous tootsies. Precious paws. Handsome hoofs. And for the first time, two of the 10 finalists are from Hawai'i.
Come Sept. 22, the name of Kailua's Jennie Lee, 27, or that of Hawai'i Kai's Emily Gardner, 41, might conceivably join those of Angela Baraquio, Brook Lee or Carolyn Sapp as beauty queens whose feet — literally, this time — led them from the local beauty contest runway to international acclaim.
Both Hawai'i finalists "Googled" their way into the contest, seeing details on contest sponsors www.foot.com and www.shoes.com while searching for orthopedic shoes.
Lee and Gardner, who are accustomed to receiving compliments about their feet, submitted photos to enter the contest.
Both are contest naturals, say their significant others, if nothing else than for the attention their feet attract. Lee's fiance, T.J. Swafford, admits to "love at first sight" when he saw her feet, with ring on toe, dangling under the bleachers at a softball game. "I didn't see the rest of her till she stood up to leave," he said.
Shoe salesmen are Gardner's constant admirers: "'Ohhh, nice feet!' they tell me," she said.
"A perfect size 8," jokes her husband, Paul Goldkorn.
For Gardner, a lawyer, "training" is a regimen of surfing, tennis and tanning.
Lee, who works for a physicians billing office, said, "I walk barefoot every day." She relishes a Paul Brown pedicure special that she calls "two hours of wonderful, heaven-sent, womanly bliss."
Lee owns 210 pairs of shoes, filling her and Swafford's closets. Gardner has about two dozen. Neither wears socks to hide those beautiful tootsies.
Lee's nail polish is "Company Red." Gardner wears a shade named "I'm Really Not a Waitress."
Both agree contestant No. 9 in the Web site pictures is the one to beat — Lee and Gardner are Nos. 7 and 8, respectively. Contest judges look for a nice arch, no corns, bunions or other defects.
And apparently there's a bit of contest urban lore developing, said Web site spokeswoman Faye Rapoport. "The first contest photo submitted the first year was of feet — in the middle of a pie!" Since then, she said, organizers get a number of entries, feet firmly embedded in pies and cakes.
After four years, contest entries now reach the thousands. The whole point of the contest, said Rapoport, is to have fun — with the possible added benefit of emphasizing the importance of good foot health.
For Gardner, win or lose, her household already has a beauty icon: Toby the family dog was recently selected for the Hawaiian Humane Society's new calendar.
