2018 Peony pageant judges, emcee listed

VW independent/submitted information

The Peony Festival Pageant Committee has named the four judges and master of ceremonies for Friday’s upcoming Peony Pageant. Judges include Deann Brewster Hardeman, Dan Ruckman, June McCullough, and Rani Stevens, while Sean Ford will emcee the pageant.

The pageant will take place at 7 p.m. Friday in the Marsh Foundation Auditorium on Lincoln Highway. Doors open at 6:30 that evening.

The following are bios of all four judges and the emcee:

Deann Brewster Hardeman is currently a resident of St. Marys. She is an alumnus of Ohio City Liberty School and continued her education at Wright State Lake Campus, where she received a degree as a medical secretary. Later in life, she returned to college to become a Registered Nurse.

Her passion has always been in music. God blessed her with a musical talent and a father with musical talent and great patience. He started teaching her piano at the age of 4. She then progressed to playing Gospel and Classical music and accompanied her dad and family quartet, in addition to many other talented people through the years.

As a young girl, she enjoyed participating in pageants and many talent contests. She has had the pleasure of being the keyboardist and background singer with her husband in a classic rock band called Another Round for the past three years. They have entertained at festivals, county fairs, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and many other venues.

She and her husband, Tony, have been married for 25 years and have two daughters, 23 and 18 years old.

Dan Ruckman is currently in his 21st year of teaching and serving his 15th year as director of bands at Coldwater Exempted Village Schools, where he directs the 5-12 concert bands, high school marching and pep bands, small ensemble/music lab class, and music theory.

Ruckman earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from Bowling Green State University while serving as the band methods graduate assistant.

He is currently an OMEA adjudicator, past president of OMEA District 3, and secretary of the Ohio Music Education Association. He is a member of the National Association for Music Education, Ohio Music Education Association, American School Band Directors Association, and Phi Beta Mu.

Ruckman lives in Coldwater with his wife, Patty, and three daughters.

June McCullough is vocal instructor at the Sweetwater Academy of Music and Technology in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

She has been involved in music her whole life, starting with singing in church at the age of 9. While most of her focus has been in church music, worship bands, and choirs, she has also performed with locally and nationally known artists, including Larnell Harris, Livingston Taylor, and Idina Menzel. McCullough is a soloist and vocal instructor with the Voices of Unity Youth Choir and has performed at the Vatican, Carnegie Hall, and toured in Europe and China. Classically trained, she enjoys working with all styles of music, from soulful art forms to theater and rock. 

Randi Stevens, a senior sales director for May Kay Cosmetics, began her rewarding career with Mary Kay in December 1974. Since becoming a director in December 1976 she has received many prestigious awards and recognitions, including Mary Kay’s Monthly Miss Go-Give award in 1983. Her unit has reached the level of the $950,000 Club and has been in the top 10 at the Sapphire Seminar 10 times, including runner-up in unit sales in 2015 and 2016, and No. 3 in 2017.

Most notably, Stevens is the No. 1 director in unit sales for the 2016 and 2017 Sapphire Seminar Go Give.

During her career she has earned 20 pink cars, a mink coat, diamond rings, a $3,500 business package, plus cash bonuses. She used a portion of her bonuses to take her entire family on a two-week trip to Germany and Scotland. Stevens has also earned 22 fabulous all-expense paid trips to London, Stockholm, Munich, Paris, Rome (twice), Madrid, Beijing, Costa del Sol (twice), Scotland, Hawaii, the islands of Crete and Tenerife, Monte Carlo, and Venice, plus cruises of the Greek Isles twice and the Mediterranean.

In September 2017, she again joined the top directors in a trip to an exclusive island near Vancouver and enjoyed a cruise of Alaska.

Her mission is to mentor, enrich, and help women work effectively to create a balanced rich life for themselves and their families.

Sean Ford grew up in Allen County and is a graduate of Allen East Schools. He has lived in the Van Wert area for the past 22 years and was hired by Eaton (Aeroquip) Corporation soon after receiving his engineering degree from Ohio Northern University. He is currently a project manager at Federal-Mogul Corporation’s Van Wert plant, where he has worked for the past 10 years.

Ford is married to Hollie, a teacher at Lincolnview, and together they have twin daughters, Olivia and Sophia, who are in kindergarten at Lincolnview. He is active in local politics, sings in his church’s worship team, and enjoys sharing his love of music with his daughters. In his free time, Ford enjoys woodworking, traveling, playing piano, and watching movies.