RIGBY— The Little Miss Rigby pageant gives girls ages 5 to 13 a reason to perform on stage, polish their poise, and increase their self-esteem.
“It really helps to build their confidence, and it also helps them explore their interests,” Faith Stibal says.
The pageant started over 15 years ago and has been the primary driver for funding the Rigby High School Dance team, the Troyettes. Each year the pageant participants are partnered with a high school dancer as their mentor through the pageant.
”… I think they really like that because they get one-on-one personal attention—growth with one of our high school girls. So I think they really think that's cool,” Faith Stibal says.
At this year's competition there were 32 participants.
“We go through lots of different scenarios with them, we do fitness, and they learn some dancing components, then they get to learn how to be confident walking on stage all by themselves,
Competitors were 5 to 12 years old at the Oct. 21 competition. There are three age categories and three title holders for each category of the competition. Londyn Schultz won the Mini Miss Rigby (5-7), Addie Sue won the Junior Miss Rigby (8-9), and Suri Groom won the Little Miss Rigby (10-12).
8-year-old Addie Sue, the Junior Miss Rigby title holder says she’s competed in the pageant ever since she was old enough to. This year for her talent she sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
“I really wanted to sing it because my grandma and, yeah, and she, um, really loves that movie. She loves the song. And I just wanted to make my family happy,” Addie says.
The Little Miss Rigby pageant is just one of Addie Sue’s endeavors as she’s done many singing performances including one on national television. When I asked her how important winning was, here’s what she said.
It doesn't matter because all you're there for is to have fun. And you've gotten to learn both because you haven't won every single year. Yes, I haven't. Were you sad the years you didn't win? Yes, but then I realized that sometimes it's not about winning. It's just about having fun and making sure that other people are too.
Overall organizers love to see the growth of the girls through their pageant program.
“It helps them to feel good about themselves, a lot of times we get a lot of the same girls each year and I really just think they learn how to feel good about themselves no matter what the outcome is, they just have a lot of fun,” Stibal says.
The Little Miss Rigby pageant happens every fall, and you don’t have to be from Rigby to sign up.
