Miss Washington Recognized by King County Council for Work with Low Income Families

The Metropolitan King County Council honored Miss Washington 2011 Brittney Henry for her work with low-income school children.

“I am very proud to present Miss Britney Henry with this recognition, not only for her pageantry talents, but also for her work as an advocate for low income children,” said Councilmember Julia Patterson, the sponsor of the recognition. “It’s not every day you see such a young individual working so hard to break the cycle of poverty and advocating for the success of Washington children.”

Raised by a single mother, Henry was one the first members of her family to attend college. Growing up, she did janitorial work from age 15 to help support her family. She began competing in pageants four years ago as a way to help her pay for tuition, and since then, has been awarded over $25,000 in scholarship assistance and multiple pageant titles.

Henry was crowned Miss Washington at the 2011 Miss Washington Ceremony on July 2. Her talent in the pageant was the fiddle, which she had been using to help raise money for her college tuition by playing it at the Pike Place Market after graduating high school. Since she understands the challenges facing low income children, Henry’s pageant platform was “Promoting Higher Education for Low Income Families.”

Henry is an active volunteer for various Washington State nonprofit organizations, including her work as an advisor, motivational speaker and fundraiser for the Northwest Learning and Achievement Group. The Northwest Learning and Achievement Group is a Washington State non-profit focused on helping underrepresented students obtain higher education. Henry uses her success story as a tool to inspire underrepresented students to achieve academic success.

Henry thanked Council for the recognition and said the challenges she faced growing up are no different than the challenges that “40,000 low-income children in Washington State are facing today.”

“We need to continue to support low-income students, so they will realize that they can obtain higher education,” said Henry.

Editor's Note: This is a press release from the King County Council