Preteen beauty queen gives back to community

By Kathleen Goddeyne - 

Tristany Hightower, a student at Fruita 8/9, was crowned Miss Colorado Preteen at the National American Miss pageant in June. Hightower traveled to Denver to compete in the all-natural (no make-up) pageant against 104 other girls.

Hightower and the other contestants were judged on formal wear, interview skills, personal introduction, and community involvement.

“This pageant really focuses on inner beauty,” said Cami Hightower, Tristany’s mother. “That’s one reason why we chose to do pageants with this organization.”

At the state competition, the contestants are required to bring either books, stuffed animals, or school supplies. After the pageant winners have been crowned in each of the five divisions, the books, stuffed animals, and school supplies are divided up between the girls.

“Tristany knew she was going to donate to the care bear program at the Grand Junction Fire Department, so we took as much as we could to donate,” said Cami.

Tristany recently donated stuffed animals to the GJFD and books to the Latimer House.

Although she is only required to do four hours of community service to attain a high score in the community involvement portion of the upcoming National American Miss pageant in Anaheim, Calif., Tristany has donated her time and effort to several different organizations in the Grand Valley.

“She has worked at the Catholic Outreach for empty bowls and during the summer, the Catholic Outreach needed clothes, so she did a drive and gathered a whole pick up truck’s worth,” Cami said.

Tristany is also running her third annual coat drive and will be dropping the collection off at a homeless shelter on Oct. 29 before she will serve dinner to those in need.

The national pageant for National American Miss is scheduled for Nov. 18-23. Tristany will compete for the top spot against 48 other state-winning competitors. She should have a fair chance as she was the Miss Colorado Princess in 2005, the Miss Junior Preteen in 2008, and was the first runner up in the preteen pageant last year.

“She loves it (pageants),” Cami said. “ This is her thing that she loves to do.”