The 35^th annual Miss Leesburg Scholarship Pageant recently crowned five young women who have big hearts for community service. They will represent Leesburg at special events, parades, and community activities throughout the year.

The 2022-2023 representatives are:

Tiny Miss Leesburg—Carleigh Smith

Little Miss—Abby Carlton

Junior Miss—Shaylin Shumate

Teen Miss—Meghan Boliek

Miss Leesburg—Lily Boliek

This marks only the second time in the program’s 35-year history that two sisters won in the same year. In 2017, Chloe and Eva Henderson were crowned together. Lily is 16 (she’ll turn 17 on Friday) and is a junior at First Academy-Leesburg. Meghan is a 15-year-old sophomore at First Academy-Leesburg. They are the daughters of Robert and Jennifer Boliek.

“Having two daughters in the pageant was nerve-racking,” Jennifer says. “When Meghan won Teen Miss, I thought to myself this could go really well or really bad if one of them won and the other didn’t. Honestly, it was an amazing feeling to see them both win. I couldn’t believe it.”

Linda Watts, a resident of Leesburg, organized the Miss Leesburg Pageant in 1986 and in 1997 changed the name to the Miss Leesburg Scholarship Pageant. The purpose of the program is to select local girls to represent their hometown as role models and to promote pride in the community by active involvement in many areas, including volunteer service work.