Houston sending a lot of talent to Miss Georgia pageant
About 10 percent of the pageant contestants at this year’s Miss Georgia pageant have ties to Houston County.
Those young women include Annie Swan, Miss International City’s Outstanding Teen; Keerti Soundappan, Miss Warner Robins’ Outstanding Teen; Grace Thomas, Miss Southeast Georgia’s Outstanding Teen; Ceniah Arline, Miss Northside’s Outstanding Teen; Kandice Lumpkin, Miss Magnolia’s Outstanding Teen; Mary Grace Moore, Miss Macon’s Outstanding Teen; Sarah DeLoach, Miss International City; Lyndsay Richardson, Miss Warner Robins; Michaela Heide, Miss Paulding County; Nayah Terry, Miss Northside; Gillian Pritchett, Miss Pickens County; Darlyn Davis, Miss Flint River; and Savanna Little, Miss Lake Lanier.
While some preliminary pageants that lead to Miss Georgia have residency requirements, many others do not, making those pageants open to any young woman in the state.
Sunday afternoon, the Miss Warner Robins board hosted its annual “Send Off Reception” celebration at the Wellston Center. On hand were the four young ladies who will be representing Warner Robins in the Miss Georgia and Miss Georgia’s Outstanding Teen pageants that will be held in June 13-17 in Columbus.
The four young women modeled the clothes that they will be wearing at the pageant and performed their individual talents at the Send Off.
Keerti will be performing a classical Bollywood Fusion to “Vaada Vaada” for her talent and has chosen for her platform “The STEM of Our Future: Stimulating Awareness and Involvement.” She is a rising junior at Houston County High School and plans to attend Stanford University. She is in the top 2 percent of her class and has been on the honor roll since kindergarten. Among her many accomplishments, Keerti has been named Governor’s Honors Program State Finalist in Science; won first-place ISEF Regional Science Fair and State Qualifier; Best in Region in Social Studies Fair for Sociological Research and first-place FBLA State Public Speaking competition.
Lyndsay has chosen for her platform “Mentoring through Music,” an effort to encourage the importance of music education. A 2014 graduate of Veterans High School, Lyndsay is a rising senior vocal music education major at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University. She is a member of the school’s Honors College, the National Society of Leadership and Success and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Lyndsay is the editor and former vice president of membership in the female music fraternity Sigma Alpha Iota and has also has held the position of vice president in her Collegiate National Association for Music Educators chapter.
Annie attends Thomas Jefferson Academy, where she is ranked first in her class. She will be performing a tap dance to “Hit the Road, Jack” as her talent. Her platform, “Raise a Voice for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,” was inspired by the ALS diagnosis of her grandfather, Wayne Battle. Annie formed the “Walk for Papa Wayne” team and serves as captain. The team has raised more than $40,000 for ALS, also know as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Among her numerous academic, athletic and dance awards on the state and national level, Annie won the Best Actor Award in Regional One-Act Play and was named to the All-American Team for the National Cheerleaders Association.
Sarah will be performing for her talent a tap dance to “Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That.” Her platform is a “Heart For Mentoring — Helping Others Realize Their Full Potential.” Sarah is a junior at Georgia Southern University, where she is a mathematics major and a member of the university Honor’s Program and Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, and is a Southern Ambassador and was a 2016 peer leader. She was recently selected to be a peer instructor for fall semester 2017 and will teach a First Year Experience class for incoming freshman. Her future plans are to obtain a masters of science degree in mathematics. She has been dancing since she was 5 years old. Sarah also volunteers for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and will arrive in Columbus with over 75 sets of pajamas to deliver to the Children’s Hospital during Miss Georgia week.
For those that wish to contact the contestants during pageant week there are two addresses. For cards, address by name and title and send to Rankin Events Office, 1004 Broadway, Columbus, GA 31901. For flowers or gifts, the address is No. 25 West Tenth Street, Columbus, GA 31901.
Alline Kent can be contacted at allinekent@cox.net
This story was originally published June 3, 2017 at 8:17 PM with the headline "Houston sending a lot of talent to Miss Georgia pageant."