On Sept. 21, Miss Emery County Haivyn Pitchforth was crowned as Miss Teen Utah Volunteer, in the process also becoming the first Miss Emery County to receive a state crown. Due to rules that you may only hold one crown at a time, on Friday, Oct. 4 the title of Miss Emery was passed on to Teya Anderson. Castle Country Radio sat down with Pitchforth and Anderson, as well as the rest of the Miss Emery County Organization to talk about all things Miss Emery.

Starting with Pitchforth, we first asked what it meant to her to receive the title of Miss Teen Utah Volunteer,” when they first called my name, I was like, no way, like they’re joking, this can’t be real. But it was very much real and it’s insane, but I’ve loved it and it’s been amazing.”

As with any pageant, there are stages to the competition, we asked Pitchforth what she did to prepare,” what I really had to do was work on talking in front of people. That’s always been a huge struggle for me.” Also as a part of the pageant, each participant has a platform which they promote,” my serve initiative is called The World Around Us. And it means to get out and get moving and experience what our world has to offer.”

Next, we were joined by Junior Miss Emery Makenzi Cheshire. First, we asked what she enjoys most about being a part of Miss Emery,” my favorite part of being a part of Miss Emery is just being able to spend time with my Sash sisters. They’re so fun to be around and I love just getting to serve our County.”

As a part of Miss Emery, each winner spends time traveling around the county going to different events and mingling with the citizens. We asked Cheshire what event she enjoyed the most. “Last weekend, me and Ryleigh Whimpey, our Miss Emery Teen and Haivyn attended a walk for veterans. It was so fun, we got to learn so much cool stuff about all the veterans.”

Closing out our talk with Cheshire, we asked what she was most looking forward to, she replied,” The thing I’m most looking forward to is probably hosting my day of service. I’m going to be doing a community book drive called ‘Reading Across Emery County’. And I’m going to donate all of the books that I get to schools. And I’m very excited about that.”

Next, we talked with Ryleigh Whimpey, Miss Emery Teen. Following the same path of questioning, we first talked about what the teen enjoys most about the organization. “My favorite part of being with the Miss Emery organization is getting to know all these amazing people and getting to know my sash sisters. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to get to know people I didn’t know before.”

As for Whimpey’s favorite event, she said that she couldn’t decide because each was a special memory to her. As for what she’s most looking forward to, Whimpey stated it’s a mixture of photoshoots and serving her community.

On the topic of serving the community, Whimpey spoke on her service initiative,” So my community service initiative is sparking creativity in children. I’m hosting creativity clinics by going to schools through pre-K up to third-ish grade. We will be doing activities to help spark their creativity with things to spark their imagination and improve their writing skills.”

Next taking the mic was Little Miss Emery Saylor Huntington. Again, starting with what she enjoys most about being a part of Miss Emery, Huntington replied,” My favorite part of being with Miss Emery is probably hanging out with my sash sisters and serving the community and meeting all the new people that I didn’t know at first.” She continued,” My favorite event is probably like all the parades that we go to. Because we get to wear our big dresses, get on the float and see everyone. And just how they’re smiling. And they’re always like, there’s the princesses and it just makes us happy.”

Rounding out our conversation with the Miss Emery organization, we spoke to newly crowned Miss Emery Teya Anderson. First, she spoke on her first event as Miss Emery, which was the Joe’s Valley Boulder Fest. “That was incredible,” Anderson stated,” I loved hanging out with the girls while meeting and serving the community. We’ve got great people in Emery County.”

Anderson then discusses her service initiative for the year,” My platform is ‘Smile Bright’, which teaches the importance of dental hygiene in youth. I currently work at Dr. Sean Leonard’s office and I’ve seen a lot of patients come in with poor dental hygiene which leads to a lot of bigger issues in the future and can be expensive. So if we teach kids while they’re young, it will be great. And I’m super excited about that.”

Through each of the royalty’s closing remarks, one sentiment was shared between all, be kind and love everyone.

To keep up with the Miss Emery Scholarship Organization, you can follow the group on Facebook.

*Photo Courtesy of the Miss Emery Scholarship Organization