Royalty is always a big deal, even more so when that royalty is homegrown. One example of this homegrown royalty is the Miss Carbon County Scholarship Organization, which on Aug. 4 welcomed the 2024-2025 royalty. Receiving the crown were Mini Miss Addalynn Jones, Little Miss Paisley Jenkins, Junior Miss Taylee Bower, Miss Teen Burcklee Brady and Miss Carbon County Shalyce Rauhala.

Castle Country Radio sat down with the organization to gain insight into what being a part of Miss Carbon County entails, what platforms they’re promoting and their favorite part of holding the crown.

Starting with Jenkins, we asked what her favorite part of being a part of Miss Carbon County was,” Probably just hanging out with my pageant sisters and going to all the fun events.” She continued to discuss what she was most excited about with the organization,” I’m looking forward to the Christmas light parade and all the other parades we get to go to.”

We then welcomed Miss Teen Burcklee Brady into the studio, who talked about the platform that she is working to promote. “My platform is hashtag social media smart and it’s focused on social media safety. When I was in sixth grade, I had an Instagram account because I was a cheerleader and we had to learn the cheers. And I got a message on there asking for personal information and personal pictures. And I thought it was super cool that they were willing to pay me money for some stuff like that. But I turned it into my mom and she said it was not a good idea.” Brady continued,” And so I made a book on my story and my tips and advice on social media safety to get the word out there that social media is nothing you should play with. It should be taken super seriously.”

Brady also discussed her plans for how she wants to spread her platform,” go to schools and I have my book and I go and talk to them about my book, sharing my three tips and advice, sharing all my whole story, letting them know if it can happen to me, it can happen to you. And personally living in a small town, I have never thought something that big and something like that could happen to me. And social media just makes my world so much bigger.”

Rounding out her portion of the conversation, Brady shared one of her tips for staying safe on social media,” going back to the parent thing, it is having a personal parent monitor your account. I have my mom monitor my account, making sure that all my messages and everything that comes through my account are safe.”

Following Brady, Junior Miss Taylee Brower took the time to chat with us. Speaking on her favorite event she’s been able to attend, Brower stated,” I love going out and doing all of our service projects.”

Brower then described her platform and goals for the year,” I’ve been working on my platform for the last two, three years. It’s called the little voice movement and it’s all about sharing your voice with others and lifting each other up and not putting each other down. These last couple of years were really hard for me.” She continued,” A group of kids just said really mean things and it dropped my self-confidence level. So I’m going to all the fourth and fifth grade classes in my community and share kindness cards with them and show this interview presentation. And I want to talk about my experience and self-confidence as well.”

She then explained what kindness cards are,” A kindness card is just a nice card that says nice things like ‘look on the bright side’, ‘you’re fabulous’ and anything that they can think of to hand out to kids who are having a hard day.”

Leaving a parting message for everyone, Brower shared,” Just serve your community as much as you can.”

Next taking the microphone was Mini Miss Addalyn Jones, who provided some youthful insight into her favorite part of holding the crown,” Spending time with my pageant sisters and having fun.” She added that her favorite events were those with bouncy houses. Ending her time, Jones shared what she was most looking forward to during the rest of her time with Miss Carbon County,” Being nice to people and sharing.”

And last but certainly not least, Miss Carbon County herself, Shalyce Rauhala, stepped into the recording booth. Again, we asked Rauhala what her favorite part of being Miss Carbon County was,” Where do I begin? We’ve been to so much and already accomplished so much, but honestly, besides being with my royalty sisters and getting to know them and just becoming an older sister to them and them becoming little sisters to me, I would say probably all the mental health awareness events and all the suicide awareness events. Those are important to me.”

She delved further into the topic of mental health awareness when introducing her platform. “My platform is ‘Caring About Health is Loving Yourself’, and it focuses on the importance of mental health. I have dealt with mental health issues and I have had family friends who have as well. So I understand how widespread this challenge is.” She continued,” You need to have a lot of self-love and you need to know how to handle mental health because if you don’t, it can be challenging and it could be challenging your life and your family’s lives and everyone around you.” 

As for how she plans to accomplish this, Rauhala explained,” I go to counseling. I’m on medication and I think that’s a great example to others to say it’s OK and it’s not a weakness to do those things. You need help. You need other people’s help. And I think getting other people’s insights and just like a broken arm, uh, you need physical health, you need a sling, you need a cast, whatever it is to help those physical things.” Rauhala also stated,” Mental health is the same way, whether that’s medication, whether that’s working out, whether that’s talking to somebody. And I think just spreading awareness for that and letting people know that can be a big example.”

As for what she is most looking forward to with the organization, Rauhala shared,” I would say I’m just so excited for the events. We’ve had such a busy year and our goal has been to try to hit every single event possible.”

To stay up to date with Carbon County’s Royalty, you can follow the organization on Facebook or its website.