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.

"I love doing service. I tutor elementary school children and volunteer for the Make-A-Wish Foundation," Bracey said. (She recently dressed up as a princess and took a 6-year-old cancer-stricken child shopping as part of that service.)

Bracey is the oldest daughter of Richard and Kim Bracey. She has three younger sisters who will all be at the event with her parents to cheer her on.

"I am so excited. I am ecstatic," said Bracey. As the Utah representative, Bracey follows Lindsey Brinton of Salt Lake City, who was America's Junior Miss 2008. Brinton will perform on stage in the finals show.

Bracey traveled to Mobile two weeks ahead of the actual competition to meet the other contestants and help participate in a variety of service projects.

Photos, news and updates will be available on NBC15online.com along with the live competition on June 27.

E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com