Miss Cache Valley passes title, said experience unique
As a little girl, Rachel Jensen said she never dreamed she would one day become a queen. But that day happened when she was crowned last year’s Miss Cache Valley.
“I laugh when people ask me why I do pageants because I run into people from high school, and I guarantee I was the last person anybody expected to see from our graduating class on the stage of Miss Utah,” Rachel said.
Jensen grew up in Herriman, Utah, and attends USU working on a major in public relations. She plans to graduate this April, and said she will not only walk away with a diploma but feels like she has helped make a difference in Cache Valley.
But she jokingly said she will miss wearing her crown.
“I can’t wear my crown unless it’s in my bedroom anymore,” she said. “It gets to sit in a box. But to be honest, I’m not sad. I had a good time.”
From handing out awards at the Cache Valley Cruise In to helping build and dedicate Ryan’s Place Park, Jensen said she got to experience a lot of things she otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do. Ryan’s Place Park is a donation-funded park in River Heights built in memoriam of 3-year-old Ryan Adams who drowned in Lake Powell two years ago.
“Ryan’s Place Park was seriously the highlight of my service,” Jensen said. “I think it’s up there with everything I’ve done through my pageant experience.”
Each contestant in the Miss Cache Valley program is required to come up with a platform or take a stance on an issue she faces, and the winner then promotes her platform throughout her year of service. Jensen said she chose her platform based on a personal experience she faced as a teenager.
“I had an experience with bullying, and I wondered how many other kids are going through the same thing,” Jensen said. “It surprised me of how big of an issue it is nationwide.”
Jensen said she has been working as outreach coordinator for the Power in You, a non-profit organization started by Utah First Lady Mary Kaye Huntsman designed to help young people with the problems they face.
Co-director of the Miss Cache Valley scholarship program, Tiffani Rudd said, “Rachel was a great spokesperson for Cache Valley. Her partnership with Mary Kaye Huntsman gave her a lot of opportunities to talk to the youth.”
Jensen had the opportunity to speak and tell her bullying story to children in assemblies throughout her year of service, she said.
Jensen gave up her title to Kathryn Hopkins on Feb. 23 at the annual Miss Cache Valley Scholarship program held at Mount Logan Middle School.
Kathryn Hopkins, Miss Cache Valley 2008, said she was shocked when they announced her name and said it was one of the funnest moments of her life.
“There were so many other girls I thought for sure would win, and so I was just having fun in the moment and then they called my name,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins has grown up in Logan since the age of 10 and now attends Brigham Young University in Provo, she said. She plans to graduate in spring of 2010 in broadcast journalism and a minor in harp, which also was her talent in this year’s pageant, she said.
Hopkins said she began playing the harp at age 7 after convincing her mom to drive her from Logan to Salt Lake for lessons.
“It was a big time commitment for my mom, but I just loved it,” Hopkins said.
Involving youth, especially girls, in high school athletics is the platform Hopkins said she will be promoting this upcoming year.
“I chose it because when I went into high school, I had never really played a sport before and I was really shy and didn’t have a lot of self-confidence, and then my dad convinced me to tryout for the tennis team and it was so much fun.”
Rudd said pageants are about promoting self-confidence in young women.
“Overall it just makes (the girl) more prepared to go into womanhood, to go into job interviews, and to go on to college,” Rudd said. “Even if the girl doesn’t win, she has learned something from the experience.”
Jensen said her experiences with Miss Cache Valley are just the beginning.
“I’m very grateful for the experience,” Jensen said. “If anything, it makes you more excited for what’s to come.”
-t.dixon@aggiemail.usu.edu