Seeking poise, elegance, beauty
Talents of all kinds, combined with swimsuits and evening gowns, will create an evening of entertainment and education on July 18.
For 27 years, the Vignette Club has hosted the Miss Shelby County Pageant. According to the pageant’s website, the scholarship competition is for intelligent and graceful women between the ages of 17 and 23 who live, work or go to school in Shelby, Chilton, Jefferson, Talladega, Bibb, Coosa or St. Clair Counties.
The pageant is currently seeking applicants to compete for the 2015 crown. The event will take place July 18 at 7 p.m. at Shelby County High School.
“We are looking for a person to represent Shelby County who is poised and smart — someone with elegance and grace,” said pageant coordinator Pam Oliver. “They have to have a talent, a swimsuit body and a platform, and they have to be elegant in their evening gown.”
The platform is one of the most important parts of the competition, Oliver said. The contestants must pick a cause to stand behind to support and raise funds for if they are crowned the winner.
The Miss Outstanding Teen Pageant, in its fifth year, also runs with the Miss Shelby County Pageant. Oliver said they are seeking 12- to 16-year-olds to compete for that title.
Entries are due by July 5 for both pageants, which award educational scholarships, but Oliver said they may only accept the first 20 applicants in each category.
Those who are crowned will then move on to compete at the state level in either the Miss Alabama Pageant or the Miss Alabama Outstanding Teen Pageant.
The qualifications for each pageant trickle down from the national level, meaning the Miss America requirements set the restrictions and standards for the pageants in Shelby County.
One of the requirements of the Miss Alabama Pageant, not required by the Miss Shelby County Pageant, is a record of the contestant’s community service through a community service scrapbook.
Shelby County contestants who create community service books can also submit them for the Sonya Letkovits Community Service Award, a local charity award.
“They bring their community service book and it is judged,” Oliver said. “We give a scholarship on that as well, and that doesn’t necessarily have to be the winner.”
The community service scholarship is worth an additional $650 to go toward the winner’s education.
Out of 24 contestants last year, Holland Brown was crowned the 2014 Miss Shelby County, and Mikaylah Dungans was crowned the 2014 Miss Shelby County Outstanding Teen. They will attend the 2015 competition to crown the new winners.
For more information on the pageant or for links to application forms, visit missshelbycounty.com.