Queen of Summer a special Veterans High School pageant
The 2016 Miss Houston County Queen of Summer pageant was held April 30 at Veterans High School.
The pageant, which was started last year to offer young women with disabilities an opportunity to compete in pageants, was the creation of then-Miss Houston County High School Kelsey Hollis. Kelsey’s brother has special needs and Kelsey has advocated most of her life for the disabled. The idea behind the pageant was twofold — give young women with disabilities a night to shine and give the high school pageant queens an activity they could work on together.
Kelsey is currently Miss Houston County’s Outstanding Teen and continues to serve as the pageant’s director.
The pageant has two categories for young women to compete in — middle school age and high school age.
Hannah Shepherd was crowned the 2016 Miss Houston County Queen of Summer. Hannah attends Veterans High School and also won the interview award.
The prettiest dress award went to Caharizima Dixon; prettiest smile award went to Deia Breckenridge; personality award went Brittany Holley; prettiest hair award went to Alexandria Tucker; poise award went to Noelle Campbell; and the Spirit of Summer award to Annabelle Whitaker.
The speech preliminary award went to Jamesca Brown. Miss Congeniality for the Queen of Summer pageant was Brittany Derr.
In the middle school category, Amira Smith of Bonaire Middle School was crowned Miss Houston County Princess of Summer. Si’Nah Downing won the personality award and Aniya Perkins won the poise award. The speech preliminary award went to Kayla Preast and Amira won the interview preliminary. The Spirit of Summer award went to Keshaundra Covington.
Warner Robins Mayor Randy Toms was on hand to make opening remarks, and Kelsey Hollis sang the national anthem for the crowd, who gained admission to the event by donating canned food items that in turn will be donated to a local food bank. Kourtney Shelley served as mistress of ceremonies.
This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 10:09 PM with the headline "Queen of Summer a special Veterans High School pageant."