FROM STAFF REPORTS

COLUMBIANA – The Miss Shelby County Pageant and Miss Shelby County’s Outstanding Teen Pageant will be held on Friday, July 21, at 7 p.m., at Shelby County High School auditorium, located at 101 Washington Street in Columbiana.

Featured in the program will be Miss Shelby County 2017, Chassidy Sumler, a graduate student at UAB.

Sumler was name second runner-up and preliminary talent winner at the Miss Alabama Pageant in June.

She will perform a vocal at the pageant.

Also featured will be Miss Shelby County’s Outstanding Teen, Blakely Channell of Alabaster, who will perform a dance during the program.

Miss Alabama 2017, Jessica Procter, will serve as emcee of the pageant and will also perform.

Contestants in the Miss Shelby County Pageant will receive points from a panel of five judges in five categories: private interview, 25 percent; onstage question, 20 percent; swimsuit, 10 percent; talent, 30 percent; and evening wear, 15 percent.

Contestants in the Miss Shelby County’s Outstanding Teen Pageant will receive points in four categories: private interview, 25 percent; talent, 35 percent; lifestyle and fitness, 15 percent; and evening wear and onstage question, 25 percent.

The winner of the Miss Shelby County 2018 title will compete at the Miss Alabama Pageant in Birmingham in June 2018, and the winner of the Miss Shelby County’s Outstanding Teen 2018 title will go on to compete at the Miss Alabama’s Outstanding Teen Pageant in Sylacauga in March 2018.

Kristen Coon is the Miss Alabama Pageant field director. Pam Oliver is the local director, and the pageant is sponsored annually by the Columbiana Vignette Club.

Admission will be $15 per person and includes a program book.

Last month, the Miss Alabama Pageant awarded $107,000 in cash scholarships and made available through colleges and universities millions of dollars in in-kind scholarships to participating contestants.

In March, the Miss Alabama’s Outstanding Teen Pageant made available $16,200 in cash scholarships and $736,648 in in-kind scholarships to participating contestants.

The Miss America Organization, a 501(c)4 non-profit organization, is the nation’s leading advocate for women’s education and the largest provider of scholarship assistance to young women in the United States, awarding millions of dollars annually.

The Miss America Organization is comprised of 52 licensed organizations, including all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

Miss America contestants contribute tens of thousands of community service hours annually and have raised more than $15 million for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Miss America scholarships since 2007.

The Miss America Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is ranked by TheBestColleges.org as number one out of the 10 Biggest Scholarship Providers in the World.