By Mark Ambrogi
Shelby Kate Everitt has been dancing since she was 3 years old.
“It’s something that I’ve really shown my passion for in the Miss America organization,” Everitt said.
Everitt wants as many children as possible to have the opportunity to share that love.
As a candidate for Miss Indiana’s Outstanding Teen, Everitt’s platform is Kids Dance Outreach, a nonprofit organization.
“It’s bringing dance to inner-city schools like IPS,” she said.
Everitt, 17, will join fellow Carmel High School student Bella Harrison, 16, in the Miss Outstanding Teen competition. Both will be seniors this fall. Three nights of preliminary competition in the Miss Indiana and Miss Outstanding Teen competition will be held June 14, 15 and 16 with the Miss Indiana Final Competition set for 6 p.m. June 17 at the Zionsville Performing Arts Center.
Everitt has been competing in pageants since eighth grade. This is her fourth Miss Outstanding Teen contest.
“I’m excited for another year and see what it holds,” said Everitt, whose talent is lyrical dance. “It’s all about learning from your mistakes. It’s truly working on your weaknesses and still being able to uphold your strengths.”
Everitt, who was the 2015 Indiana Miss Outstanding Teen runner-up, qualified by winning Miss Southern Heartland’s Outstanding Teen.
Unlike Everitt, Harrison is a newcomer to the pageant world. She qualified in just her second pageant, Miss Heart of Indiana, earlier this spring.
“I like the environment and community that’s there and the friendships with the girls in just the few hours you are there with them,” Harrison said. “You have a common goal but are all wanting the others to win at the same time. You’re not there as competitors, per se, all the time. You are there as friends who are trying to improve upon themselves.”
Harrison’s platform is to end human trafficking. She held a fundraiser at Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt for Hope for Justice, a nonprofit devoted to the mission of helping human trafficking victims.
Harrison, who is graduating in December, is a student athletic trainer for CHS sports and plans to pursue that in college.
“I love the relationships that you form with the other student athletic trainers and the athletes themselves,” Harrison said. “I also enjoy watching the progression of someone who gets injured, from where they start to where they are in a few weeks or months or however long their progression takes.”
Harrison has been playing piano for 11 years and will play a piece by Beethoven.
“I’ll probably take a year off (from pageants) and then hopefully pursue Miss Indiana pageants,” Harrison said.
