By Sydney Holder Riverbend News
The Tiny and Little Miss Lafayette High School (LHS) Pageant was held on Friday, July 9, at 6 p.m. in the LHS cafeteria, located at 160 NE Hornet Dr., in Mayo. The 14 young ladies, from kindergarten through fifth grade, showed off their Hornet Pride in casual attire and their best pageant wear in an evening gown. The judges rated contestants on the uniqueness and style of their Hornet wear, appearance in evening gowns and onstage personality and poise.
The Tiny Miss LHS contestants were Mia Sodrel, Evee Gresham, Parker Gaskins, Sharon Sanders, Ryleigh Mallard, Ava Gaylord and Avery Wood. The Little Miss LHS Contestants were Keating Land, Emma Foran, Addison Livingston, Nyasia Sparrow, Cathryn Jones, Shelby Tyre and Carolina McCray.
The pageant is an annual fundraiser for the Lafayette High School and Lafayette Elementary School Student Councils. LHS Student Council emceed the event.
The pageant was kicked off with the Tiny Miss LHS Opening Number, “Cheap Thrills,” followed by the Tiny Miss Contestants in their Hornet Pride. Next was the Little Miss LHS Opening Number, “Surf Crazy,” followed by the introduction of the Little Miss Contestants in their Hornet Pride.
The student council emcees then introduced the judges for the event, Magan Bowden, Claire Lloyd and Janyse Styles.
Bowden has begun hosting pageants under her new company, MK Pageantry and is enjoying her time as a new mother. She has represented Miss Capital City, Miss Taylor County and Miss Florida USA, competed in the Miss Citrus Pageant and won the title of Miss Florida Spectacular in 2018. She has been the director for the Florida Forest Festival Little King and Queen Program for the past 18 years and now she is the director for the annual Miss Pine Tree Pageant and Miss Taylor County Pageant, which will debut in February 2022.
Lloyd is a recent 2021 graduate of Branford High School (BHS) and will be moving to Tallahassee to attend Florida State University in the fall. Lloyd represented Little Miss, Junior Miss and Miss BHS.
Styles lives in Gainesville and attends the University of Florida. She holds the current title of USA National Miss North Florida, was crowned Junior Miss BHS, Miss Gainesville Teen USA and first runner-up at USA National Miss Florida Teen and competed in Miss Florida Teen USA.
Following the introduction of the judges, there were performances by the 2020 Teeny Miss LHS Carlei Ruff, 2020 Tiny Miss LHS Aniston Bonafide and 2020 Little Miss LHS Taycee Pridgeon.
The contestants then walked the stage in their evening gowns, followed by intermission with accessible concessions.
Before crowning the 2021 winners, the pageant said farewell to 2020 Teeny, Tiny and Little Miss LHS, Carlei Ruff, Aniston Bonafide and Taycee Pridgeon. Ava Gaylord was crowned first runner-up for Tiny Miss LHS and Ryleigh Mallard was crowned Tiny Miss LHS. Cathryn Jones was crowned first runner-up for Little Miss LHS and Keating Land was crowned Little Miss LHS.
The LHS pageant gave special recognition to the following people and groups: the Lafayette County School Board, notably Superintendent Robert Edwards; technical support and maintenance provided by Principal Stewart Hancock, Dean Tim Hanson, Jason Degroff, Wayne Hamlin and Scott Sadler; and the LHS Student Council and LES Student Council.