CONTRIBUTED

FORT WAYNE — Cydney Bridges, who served as Miss Fort Wayne for two consecutive years during the COVID-19 pandemic was crowned Miss Indiana 2023 on June 17 in Zionsville. The recent Huntington University graduate and Carroll High School alum is now set to represent Indiana at the upcoming Miss America 2024 pageant.

Currently, the official date and place of the 96th Miss America pageant has not been announced. However, Bridges is already planning every detail of her participation. Contestants compete in four categories, talent, evening wear, interview, and physical fitness. Further, each Miss America state titleholder chooses a social cause that is important to her. Additionally, in the run-up to the actual event contestants spend time perfecting interview skills, refining talent choices and making many wardrobe decisions.

“I am so happy I get about six and a half months to prepare,” Bridges said. “I have no clue what my preparations will look like. I can only go based off of what I did for Miss Indiana, which was a lot of mock interviews. It was also a lot of talent selection sessions working to figure out what talent worked best for me.”

Wardrobe selection is another big part of preparing for any competition. Perhaps it is most important in the Miss America pageant. Bridges is currently considering the right wardrobe selections for her biggest pageant competition yet.

“I get to pick out my Miss Indiana gown, my talent outfit and all of my appearance wardrobe for that (Miss America) week. But there are a lot of unknowns that I am excited about,” she said.

Perhaps pride and dedication are two words that best describe what it takes to represent an entire state in a national pageant.

“I only get to prepare for Miss America once. I only get to be Miss Indiana once. So, I am going to be soaking it all in. I am also ready to put in the hard work to make sure I make not only the city of Fort Wayne proud of Miss America but also the state of Indiana, as well,” she said.

Bridges has a long history of competing in various area pageants. Miss America rules and local pageant rules allow contestants to compete in some local contests more than once.

“I began competing in pageants in the fourth grade when I was 10 years old. I started locally in the Miss Huntertown pageant. Then in 2011 the very first Miss America (related) pageant I did was Miss Fort Wayne. I competed in the preteen program,” Bridges said. Adding, “I didn’t win my first Miss title until 2019 and that was Miss Fort Wayne.”

As a child, Bridges said, she was just happy to be on the stage. After a 5-year break from competition she realized that the Miss America platform gave her a voice to champion projects near to her heart.

“When I came back to the Miss America opportunity at age 19 it was because of the way they highlighted service. My community service initiative is the power of mentoring. I work to empower youth so that they are more than their circumstances. I also want to show people the benefits of walking alongside a child. I realized the Miss America opportunity gave me that megaphone … and gave me the stage to share my message,” Bridges said.

She plans to inspire area youth.

“One of my biggest goals is to reach 24 youth organizations during my year. Which means visiting about two youth organizations every month. During my year as Miss Fort Wayne, I created a program called, ‘Ignite Your Sparkle,’ Where I work to show young girls their inner sparkle and what makes them unique and different, and what makes them beautiful. So, I want to mobilize that program and share it with 24 youth organizations,” Bridges said.

She also wants to bring in more sponsorships to the Miss Indiana pageant.

“I am working on getting Miss Indiana a car sponsorship. I am also working on getting Miss Indiana more appearance wardrobe sponsorships, just to make sure I am giving back to the organization,” she said.

During pageant competition Bridges has not neglected her education. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) this past spring. She has also landed a job as a Registered Nurse at Riley Hospital for Children. She plans to balance her nursing schedule with her pageant schedule.

Besides Miss America competitions giving Bridges a platform to mentor youth, the opportunity to earn scholarships toward her own education was important too.

“I come from a single mom, and I am the youngest of three siblings so there wasn’t money for me to go to school. Miss America really highlights scholarship. Everything we do we can earn scholarship money. In the Miss Indiana 2023 competition I won the evening gown award, and then I won overall interview award. All of that was associated with scholarship dollars. This is a really cool and fun way to fund my education,” Bridges said.

Bridges received a $10,000 scholarship for her win as Miss Indiana and a $1,000 Elks Scholarship. Additionally, she won other smaller scholarships including one for the evening gown competition and one for her interview skills, she said.