Alpine teen headed to national Junior Miss competition

ALPINE, Utah  — Ashley Bracey believes the LDS Church's Young Women program has

helped prepare her for competing in the national Junior Miss Scholarship and

Achievement Program.

It's also made it more difficult to find an appropriate wardrobe.

\"It's been a little harder to find modest dresses, but we found what we

wanted,\" Bracey said as she finished packing for the contest, which takes place

in Mobile, Ala., June 25-27.

She focused on finding a \"cocktail dress\" sans plunging neckline or

miniskirt length.

The former Laurel class president from the Hillside Ward in the Alpine Utah North

Stake feels strongly about representing her Mormon religion and the Young Women

values.

Bracey and her family lived in Midlothian, Va., when her father, a Church

Education System coordinator, was transferred to Utah. The family now lives in

Alpine, where Bracey just graduated from Lone Peak High School. She is Utah's

Junior Miss, named in March. She was chosen over 26 contestants to take home

$5,900 in scholarship money.

In the national contest, she will compete against 50 other girls in a program

that emphasizes talent, service, self-expression and poise for $150,000 in cash

scholarships.

She intends to play a Hungarian dance number, \"Czardas,\" on the violin for

the talent segment. She has taken violin lessons for the past nine years.

For the on-stage question segment, she's hoping the questions will focus on

the \"Be Your Best Self\" platform, which emphasizes health, ambition,

responsibility, service and academic success.