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She’s Miss Minnesota Teen Volunteer

Sophie Keister will compete in national pageant in March

By Fiona Green - Staff Writer | Feb 5, 2023

Sophie Keister was recently selected as the first-ever Miss Minnesota Teen Volunteer America and will head to the Miss Teen Volunteer America Pageant at the end of March to compete for the Miss Teen Volunteer America title.

Blue Earth Area (BEA) senior Sophie Keister could say that she did not find the pageant life; rather, the pageant life found her.

Mere months ago, Keister received an unexpected phone call asking if she would be interested in representing Minnesota as an at-large titleholder in the Miss Teen Volunteer America Pageant.

Surprised, but excited, she said, “Yes.”

After completing a phone interview with Allison DeMarcus, wife of Rascal Flatts bassist Jay DeMarcus and founder/CEO of the recently-established Miss Teen Volunteer America Pageant system, Keister learned that she had been selected as the first-ever Miss Minnesota Teen Volunteer, and would be heading to the national pageant in a few short months.

Since then, Keister has found herself inaugurated into the pageantry world and busily preparing for the Miss Teen Volunteer America Pageant, which will be held in Jackson, Tennessee, from March 8-11.

The Miss Volunteer America organization embraces five principles: scholarships, education, responsibility, volunteerism and empowerment, which together spell the motto ‘S.E.R.V.E.’

In keeping with its motto, the Miss Teen Volunteer America candidates – who are eligible for thousands of dollars of scholarship money through the competition – are expected to develop a S.E.R.V.E. initiative, or a platform which encompasses the service work they are most passionate about.

“The whole idea behind this pageant is serving,” explains Amy Keister, Sophie’s mother. “It’s about giving back – what you’re doing for your community.”

While developing her service platform, Sophie Keister realized that none of the other contestants had chosen to focus their volunteerism on mental health awareness. She decided to be the first.

The topic is a personal one for Keister, who developed anxiety during the peak of COVID.

“From that experience, I knew that I wanted to focus my S.E.R.V.E. initiative on mental health,” Keister explains. “I want to normalize talking about our mental health, rather than keeping it quiet.”

In pursuit of that goal, Keister partnered with Thumbs Up, an organization which is dedicated to promoting education and communication about mental health.

One of Keister’s initiatives is bringing Thumbs Up’s No One Sits Solo™ program to the BEA School District, in the hopes that it will encourage conversations about mental health in her own community.

No One Sits Solo™ has partnered with Power of P.A.T.H. to create a curriculum for teachers which integrates teacher instructions with student handouts, videos, peer empathy-building activities, projects and student surveys. The lessons are designed to help teachers have important conversations with students about mental health.

Keister intends to introduce the curriculum to the BEA School Board at its next meeting on Feb. 13.

“The No One Sits Solo™ Project really interested me because it focuses on being inclusive with those around you,” she says. “The curriculum deepens students’ understanding of mental health and suicide awareness, as it delivers a set of tools that can potentially serve them in every aspect of their lives.”

Another service project which Keister has championed is Prom It Forward Minnesota.

Keister explains she stumbled upon Prom It Forward when she was considering selling her prom dress. The program, an annual volunteer-based fundraiser, collects donated prom dresses and sells them at discounted prices. 100 percent of the sale proceeds go directly to the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center.

Keister spread the word about the program throughout her community, posting on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat that she was looking for dresses and contacting people who had listed their dresses for sale.

“What started out as a couple of girls donating their dresses to me has turned into almost 100 gowns that I have collected,” Keister says.

She plans to deliver the gowns to Prom It Forward on Saturday with the aid of her mentor, Shana Dukes, the current Miss Minnesota Volunteer America.

Speaking of gowns, Keister has found herself awash in both Prom It Forward dresses and her own pageantry dresses since being named Miss Minnesota Teen Volunteer.

Apart from service work, Keister’s preparations for the competition also include more traditional aspects of pageantry, such as wardrobe.

As an evening gown phase accounts for 25 percent of contestants’ scores at the Miss Teen Volunteer America Pageant, Keister has partnered with a sponsor – Prom Pageant Couture – to acquire a cocktail dress and evening gown for the big event.

Keister partnered with another sponsor – Bash Fitness – for the fitness and wellness phase of the pageant, during which she will model a workout outfit.

Keister’s other sponsors include Bevcomm, Fairmont Ford, Culligan, Grandgenett Dentistry, Juba’s, Minn-Iowa Crop Insurance, Seifried Portrait Design and Artistry by Arica.

Keister’s preparation for the Miss Teen Volunteer America Pageant extends beyond clothing, too. The remaining portion of her score will be determined by a six-minute interview phase and a talent component.

For the talent phase, Keister plans to deliver a motivational speech about leadership, centered on her experience as the sole senior member and captain of the BEA girls’ basketball team.

The busy BEA senior has plenty more on her plate, as well. Apart from captaining the basketball team, she is also vice president of her class, historian of BEA’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) program and treasurer of the BEA National Honor Society (NHS).

NHS has provided Keister with many volunteer opportunities in her community. For example, she has delivered groceries to a senior Blue Earth resident every Wednesday for the past two years, and she raised $2,000 trick-or-treating for UHD Hospice last fall.

Following her graduation in the spring, Keister will venture to Iowa to continue her education. She plans to attend Iowa State University (ISU) in the fall to major in business marketing with a minor in fashion design.

She will be miles away from her parents, Amy and Travis, but Keister will find at least one familiar face on the ISU campus: her older brother, Sam, who is also an ISU student.

Though she plans to try her luck outside Minnesota next year, Keister remains appreciative of her childhood home.

“I want to thank everyone that has supported me through my life here at Blue Earth Area Schools,” she says. “I love going to school in a small community.”

Keister invites community members to follow her journey as Miss Minnesota Teen Volunteer on Facebook @MissMinnesotaTeenVolunteer and Instagram @missmnteenvol.