Hometown Hooters Girl Needs Your Votes

A favorite face of customers at a Paulding County restaurant could one day grace the cover of magazines and more.

Ashley Pike was born and raised in Paulding County and now resides in Cobb County. But locals who frequent the Hiram location of Hooters have likely seen her—she’s been a “Hooters Girl” at the restaurant for a little over two years. And on Saturday, those who visit a Hooters restaurant and even those sitting at home will see her on TV as she and 100 other Hooters Girls compete for over $150,000 in cash and prizes and for the title of Miss Hooters International.

She earned her spot in the 16th Annual Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant first by finishing third in a preliminary contest in Gwinnett County. Pike and the other top-five finishers in that contest and three others held in Georgia advanced to the state finals held last month at in Kennesaw. It was there that she was named the Georgia champion, and she will be one of five Hooters Girls from across the state to compete Saturday.

“Her being down there as a representative of our store, and a representative of our state, we couldn’t be prouder,” says Ryan Blake, manager at the Hiram Hooters. “She’s a great team member, a favorite of the coworkers, she never has an issue with anyone, and our guests love her.

“They often ask, ‘Where’s Ashley?’”

Pike's profile in the Hooters 2012 Swimsuit Pageant Commemorative Issue notes that she has been a competitive cheerleader for most of her life and recently graduated from dentistry school.

"Most importantly, she loves to work for God," it adds. "He is her main purpose in life."

Tweet your well wishes toward Hiram Hooters Girl Ashley Pike to @SmyrnaPatch. We’ll retweet your show of support throughout the weekend.

The pageant, which is being held at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Saturday afternoon, will be shown on the FX cable network Saturday at 10 p.m. Hiram Hooters will be screening the program.

If Pike is named Miss Hooters International, she’ll earn the $50,000 cash prize that goes with it and will be featured in Hooters Magazine, the Hooters Calendar and national TV commercials.

Pike also has the chance to win $5,000 in the pageant’s Viewers’ Choice contest—and those who cast at least one vote will become eligible to win a $10,000 prize.

Facebook users can vote now for Pike or their favorite contestant in the pageant at www.facebook.com/hooters; only one Facebook vote can be made per person or per Facebook account per day.  

Text message and online entries open Saturday at 4 p.m. Eastern. Those wishing to text their entries should watch the Hooters 2012 International Swimsuit Pageant to determine their favorite contestant(s)—they can then text the pageant sash number of the contestant(s) to 77000. A maximum of 10 text votes per person or per mobile number can be made per day.

Online votes can be made at www.HootersViewersChoice2012.com; only 10 online votes can be cast per person or per email address per day.

The deadline to vote by any of the three methods is 2:59 a.m. Eastern time on July 2 (11:59 p.m. Pacific on July 1). Complete contest rules are attached to this article.

The winner of the Viewer’s Choice award will be announced July 4 on hooters.com.