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Scottsdale’s Amber Barto is crowned 2021 Miss Arizona
Posted
The Miss Arizona Organization has selected the former Miss Scottsdale Amber Barto, 23, as the new Miss Arizona 2021.
Selected from 43 candidates at Madison Center for the Arts in Phoenix, she and Miss Arizona’s Outstanding Teen 2021 Kate Blair, 17, will go to compete at their respective national competitions later this year, according to a press release.
The Miss America competition and its respective state preliminaries were suspended in 2020, the release said, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Barto and Blair were crowned after a two-year hiatus.
“We are so excited for the upcoming year ahead with Amber and Kate,” said Stacey Kole,Miss Arizona Organization executive director, in a prepared statement.
“They were selected out of a very competitive field of outstanding young women, and we have every confidence that they will represent the Miss Arizona and Miss America Organizations with the utmost grace as they continue to serve their communities and state.”
Barto, who performed a contemporary dance for the talent competition, is an Arizona State University graduate with a bachelor degrees in business law and political science and a master’s degree in legal studies.
Her social impact initiative is Leadership Through Service, which she helped raise $300,000 locally for various charities and donated about a thousand hours of community service.
She will represent Arizona at the 100-year anniversary celebration of the Miss America competition this December in Connecticut, noted the release.
The new Miss Arizona’s Outstanding Teen, Blair, competed as Miss Maricopa County’s Outstanding Teen. She performed a lyrical dance for the talent competition. Her service project is Raise a Voice for Childhood Cancer, which she donates about 300 hours annually.
She recently published a children’s book and has orchestrated various fundraisers to raise $25,000 to benefit children battling cancer. Kate will compete at the national Miss America’s Outstanding Teen competition this July in Orlando, Florida.
A 501c3 nonprofit, the Miss Arizona Organization is the state preliminary to the historic Miss America competition, which was founded in 1921. This year, at the Miss Arizona competition, $20,000 in cash scholarships along with more than one million dollars in in-kind scholarships from partnering colleges and universities were awarded.
