Story by Ainsley Hall
BUNKER HILL — Rylee Burns, a third-grade student from Mountain Ridge Intermediate, recently won the National United States Elementary Scholarship Pageant.
Burns is passionate about making friends and giving back to the community through her pageantry.
The National United States Scholarship Pageant focuses on empowering girls and young women to give back to their community and develop skills to help them in the future. Through this program, contestants can win scholarships and make a difference in the world around them through service projects and their own personal platform.
“I had friends who did the pageants, and it sounded fun,” Burns said. “I decided to give it a try and won in Jefferson County. I kept going and wanted to see how high I can go.”
During her time as Little Miss Jefferson County, she got to work alongside Miss West Virginia 2022 Elizabeth Lynch, who worked her way to being the third runner-up in the Miss America competition. Burns saw the whole process and enjoyed every minute.
Since then, Burns has participated in other programs, such as the Princess Program. Burns loves being a part of pageants and uses it as a way to give back to her community through volunteering and other service projects.
During the National United States Scholarship Pageant, Burns won an award for gathering the most tabs to donate to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. With the help of family members and people throughout the South Berkeley area, Burns collected 227,711 tabs.
Burns also helped create a Kindness Club at her school where members get together to do service projects. Some of her goals include continuing to grow the Kindness Clubs in her community and getting more involved in community service. She also hopes to start her own Relay for Life team this coming year.
“With the scholarship pageants, Rylee gets to develop a lot of great skills that will help her in the future, such as public speaking,” said Nicole Burns, Rylee’s mother. “The community aspect is also so important. Since she started her community service projects, it’s become a family thing.”
Burns hopes to continue to grow and participate in many different pageants as she gets older. She dreams of someday winning Miss West Virginia in the future. Until then, she plans on working hard to give back to the community.