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Brittany Spangler new Bonners Ferry
Distinguished Young Woman |
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May 2, 2016 |
The Bonners Ferry Distinguished Young Women
program, staged on Saturday, fulfilled its
promise to dazzle all those in attendance with
its performances, stage decorations, costumes
and dresses, and eleven remarkable and talented
young women participating in the event, all with
the backdrop of this year's theme: Around the
World in 80 Days.
After the evening was opened with the national
anthem, a dazzling performance itself, given by
reigning Distinguished Young Woman Shaleyna
Higgins, the eleven Young Women took the stage
with a rousing song and dance routine, all in
their traveling outfits and with their suitcases
ready for a journey, in keeping with the theme
of the Jules Verne adventure novel, Around the
World in 80 Days. Each young woman introduced
herself to the audience, and identified their
various sponsors.
 The emcee for the evening was Michaela Dirks,
herself a past Bonners Ferry Distinguished Young
Woman winner from 2008, who currently lives in
the Seattle area and works in television and
radio broadcasting. In Saturday's program, Ms.
Dirks was outfitted in full turn-of-the-century
travel gear, as she led the evening's events,
and led the Young Women, accompanied by
participants from last year's program, on a trip
around the world.
Last year's Distinguished Young Woman Shaleyna
Higgins, along with last year's runners-up Maggie McCoy,
Abby Davis, and Veronica MacDonald, posed as
travelers to exotic destinations from the Jules
Verne story, and Ms. Dirks helped them along the
way in their journeys, providing travel tips and
stories about different customs for each
destination. Along the way on this around-the-world tour, this year's DYW participants
performed the parts of their show.
The fitness routine was a dance performance
number based on India, one of the stops in the
novel. Next up was the talent portion of the
program, which opened with Jill Alexander's
energetic performance of the Broadway show
stopper I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My
Hair, and concluded with Madalynn Kelley's
creative dance to the song Closer, performed
with an imaginative illuminated dress that she
made herself.
In between were other great talents, including
• Samantha Branson: cheerleading routine
• Alaina White: line dance
• Serenity Winey: original monologue
• Lexie LeVesque: Greased Lightning dance
routine
• Mary Fioravanti: Vocal solo Somewhere Beyond
the Sea
• Rachel Young: Hip-hop dance
• Taja Hoban: Vocal solo Good Morning Baltimore
• Cameron Haworth: Flute solo Down to the River
to Pray
• Brittany Spangler: Original slam poem about
her dad, titled Thank You Daddy, where
she expressed gratitude about all the things her
dad taught her. She recounted how her father, who was blessed
with all daughters and no sons, taught her how
to change a tire, work on a farm, and important
life lessons, ending each stanza with
"And I loved it."
Next up was the Self Expression part of the
evening's event, where each Young Woman, now in
their beautiful formal dresses, answered a
question for the judges and the audience about
pages from their own personal "Book of Life."
The Distinguished Panel of Judges for the
evening was a veteran group of talented women
themselves, hailing from St. Maries / Post
Falls, Coeur d'Alene, Spirit Lake in Idaho and
from Colfax, Washington. All have had many years
of involvement in the Distinguished Young Women
program. One judge had all of her daughters
participate in the program when they grew up,
one of whom went on to win the Idaho Distinguished Young Woman title, and then
finished as America's Distinguished Young Woman
in the national event.
While the judges were deliberating, the audience
was kept fully entertained. Outgoing
Distinguished Young Woman Shaleyna Higgins
performed a beautiful dance number that she
choreographed herself. People are still talking
about her remarkable performance. That was
followed by a performance given by the Young
Misses, young girls who are mentored by the
participants in the Distinguished Young Women
program.
"The Young Miss program is a component of the Be
Your Best Self portion of the program. It is a
mentoring/outreach program aimed at sixth grade
girls that our program started about six years
ago," said Andrakay Pluid, a coordinator for the
Distinguished Young Women program. "The
DYW participants spend Friday mornings during
the course of the program mentoring sixth grade
girls from the community. They participate in
community service projects together, do crafts,
play games, etc. Actually, the Young Miss
program came full circle last year, as several
of the participants last year and this year were
Young Misses themselves. Several cited the Young
Miss program as the reason they chose to
participate in DYW."
The next part of the audience entertainment for
Saturday's program was
presented by the Forget-Me-Nots, the
participants in last year's Distinguished Young
Women program. They performed a dance and
musical number, which was a humorous travel-themed
performance.
Outgoing Distinguished Young Woman for 2015-2016
Shaleyna Higgins was then escorted onto the
stage by her father, where she gave her farewell
address. In previous remarks, Ms. Higgins has
said, "Participating in DYW has been one of the
most rewarding and beneficial decisions I have
made while in high school. It has given me
lifelong friends, the confidence to talk in
front of others, the happiness that comes from
volunteering, and memories that I will never
forget.
"In the past year I have been honored to be
involved in local events and experience the
closeness of our community. I was able to attend
the Idaho State DYW Program where I met talented
girls all over Idaho. I have been inspired to be
my best self in all areas of my life and know
the importance of being ambitious, healthy,
studious, involved, and responsible."
Then came the announcement of the results and
presentation of the awards. Each award was
presented by the participant who won that award
in last year's program. The new Bonners
Ferry Distinguished Young Woman for 2016-2017 is
Brittany Spangler, who was awarded her medallion
by Shaleyna Higgins.
As our new Distinguished Young Woman, Ms.
Spangler was awarded:
• A $2,200 Distinguished Young Woman Scholarship
• An Official Distinguished Young Woman
Medallion
• $150 State Travel Allowance
• Gift Basket from Kootenai River Spa
• Photo Shoot with Mica Jae's Photography
• Gift Certificate from Hair Connection
• Gift Certificate from Larson's
• Gift Certificate from Homestead Coffee Company
First runner-up was Mary Fioravanti, who was
awarded a $1,600 scholarship, second runner-up
was Jill Alexander who was awarded a $1,300
scholarship, and 3rd runner-up was Serenity
Winey, who was awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
The participants in the Distinguished Young
Women program are judged on various categories:
their skills in an interview, scholastics,
talent, fitness, and self-expression. The Young
Women who won in those categories were:
• Self Expression: Brittany Spangler--$700
Scholarship
• Fitness: Lexie LeVesque--$700 Scholarship
• Scholastics: Jill Alexander--$850 Scholarship
• Scholastics: Alaina White--$850 Scholarshsip
• Talent: Brittany Spangler--$700 Scholarship
• Interview: Brittany Spangler--$700 Scholarship
In addition, Cameron Haworth was given the
BeYour Best Self Award, which came with a $700
scholarship, and Madalynn Kelley was named the
Spirit of Distinguished Young Women award winner
with a $700 scholarship.
All of the runners-up and category award winners
also received collections of prizes, gift
baskets, and gift certificates from dozens of
area businesses.
In all, 120 businesses and individuals were
listed as financial contributors to the program.
Also, as is always the story with Distinguished
Young Women each year, dozens and dozens and
dozens of individuals and organizations
participated, contributed, and helped out in so
many areas, including coordinating and managing
the program, serving as advisers, choreography,
practice interviews, stage design and
decoration, collecting and administering
scholarship donations, providing food and
dinners, accommodations for the judges, working
with the sound system and lighting, backstage
work, chauffeur, tickets, photo shoots and
portraits, other photography, video, and the
style show held a couple of weeks ago.
 Stephanie
Sims provided artistic work for the program,
designing posters for the event that have been
seen around town recently, and also designed the
cover for this year's handout program.
New Bonners Ferry Distinguished Young Woman
Brittany Spangler now begins her year serving
the community in her new capacity, and will
represent our area in the Idaho Distinguished
Young Woman event.
"This year's program came together beautifully,"
remarked Andrakay Pluid. "All of the
participants put in a tremendous amount of time
and effort, and the committee is proud of each
of them. Brittany is a wonderful representative
chosen from a group of winners, rather than a
winner from a group of representatives. The
committee would like to thank the community that
always comes together to make the Bonners Ferry
DYW program one of the best in the State and the
Nation."
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