‘A night to reminisce’
Yuma Scholarship Organization to hold Legacy Gala commemorating current, former Miss Yuma County titleholders
The Miss Yuma County program, originating in 1953, has crowned 70 years of Miss Yuma County titleholders. Now, the Yuma Scholarship Organization (YSO) is holding its first annual Legacy Gala on Friday, April 19, at the Yuma Civic Center, to commemorate the storied history of Miss
Yuma County and raise funds and awareness for the scholarship program that has been attached to titleholders since the organization’s inception. While this year’s event is sold out, organizers note it will be a great evening.
“It’s a night to reminisce, and it’s a night to honor those that have represented Miss Yuma County,” said KC Buckman,
YSO Executive Director and former Miss Yuma County 2011. “There is really no one time that a former Miss Yuma County can go back and reminisce on what happened. Bringing in this legacy gala is to bring all the former Miss Yuma County’s together in one spot to be able to have a good night, reminisce on what we did, and bring in people to show them what we’ve done.”
Each year’s Miss Yuma
County is crowned at a pageant in November after rounds of interviews, performances and on-stage questions before local and state judges. Every titleholder since 1953 has been awarded academic scholarships as well as the opportunity to compete in the Miss Arizona pageant in June.
More Yuma County residents compete at each year’s Miss Arizona in addition to the Miss Yuma County winner, but they are not able to represent Yuma. To combat this and gain representation for Yuma, YSO has expanded in recent years, adding the Miss Yuma County’s Teen title in 2015 and Miss City of Yuma and Teen from 2015 to 2019.
This year, four new titles were added: Miss Ocean to Ocean, Miss Ocean to Ocean’s Teen, Miss Sunshine City and Miss Sunshine City’s Teen. Now, of the 10 Yuma County residents set to compete for Miss Arizona, more than half of them will be representing a Yuma title.
Miss Yuma County has historically received varying amounts of scholarships as well as a Presidential Scholarship to AWC, but with six Yuma titleholders this year, more funding is needed to ensure these women are set up for the future.
“With this Gala, not only will it support the scholarship opportunities that we can give to the young women, but it will also help with their achievements in going to Miss Arizona,” Buckman said. “Miss Arizona is always held in Phoenix, so there’s travel expenses, there’s food and dining, and it’s a 10-day long process, so our goal as an organization is to make sure we can provide anything and everything that all six of our girls need for their time being away.”
“Every dollar we raise is a way to give back to the titleholders,” said Ronna Sue Stubbs,
YSO treasurer and makeup and cosmetics sponsor. “We’re really emphasizing thanking them for keeping this so active in our community and prevalent to what it means to be a titleholder.”
Many former Miss Yuma County titleholders have forged successful public careers in Yuma and elsewhere, including Amanda Mellon, formerly Amanda Murray, Miss Yuma County 1992, who went on to be crowned Miss Arizona as well.
During Buckman’s eight years as Executive Director, she said she’s seen five girls complete their bachelor’s degree completely debt free due to the scholarships provided by YSO. There are additional scholarship opportunities at Miss Arizona, so providing the funds to be able to compete in Phoenix also makes a difference in these young women’s lives.
“Our goal in this is to make sure that these women moving forward in life don’t have the financial burdens of student loans, and it’s because of us as a stepping stone to get to Miss Arizona that these young ladies have been able to graduate,” Buckman said.
The six 2024 titleholders will be able to mingle with no less than 12 former Miss Yuma County titleholders slated to attend the gala, as well as around 250 other esteemed guests.
“We will definitely be holding this every year,” Buckman said. “This is going to be our big fundraiser of the year that we do for the program. Yuma doesn’t quite often have nights that it can get dressed up and go out, so we’d just like to see the community out and help support these young women, and see what our organization is all about.”