A sixth grader at Bridgeport Middle School, Dakota Swiger doesn’t really consider herself a girly girl. Yet, she is a pageant girl – and for good reason.

 

To date, her experiences with Bridgeport’s Benedum Festival and Salem’s Apple Butter Festival have given her a chance to share who she is with the public and to meet new friends. Going forward, her title as Miss West Virginia Junior High School America may give her the chance to win a $10,000 scholarship. She competes in Orlando this summer for the national title.

 

When Dakota was a baby, her mother Heather wouldn’t have believed she would one day see her little girl walk across the pageant stage.

 

“She was born with congenital scoliosis – a deformation of the spine,” Swiger said. “Her first surgery was at 10 months and at age 4, she had growing rods inserted in her spine to help her grow and keep her spine as straight as possible.”

 

Every six months since that second surgery at Shriners Hospital in Lexington, Dakota has had subsequent surgeries  to lengthen the rods.

 

“They cannot lengthen them any more so we’re in a waiting game to get permanent rods put in,” Heather Swiger said. “We’re trying to go as long as we can so we’re kind of in a holding pattern.”

 

But while in that holding pattern, Dakota never complains. In fact, she is a first-year member of the Bridgeport Middle School Track Team. Because of her tendency to lean forward, running wasn’t an ideal option, but the 12-year-old is competing in the long jump and shot put events.

 

“She may never be the greatest, but she’s involved and she likes it,” Swiger said.

 

Dakota has also cheered for Youth Football Midgets and Peewee squads. Typically, she’s in her T-shirt and tennis shoes, but once in a while, she gets in pageant mode - with make-up, hair and wardrobe to match.  

 

She competed in the Bridgeport Benedum Festival at ages 9 and 10. Both times, she came out short of the title, but in 2013, she was named first runner-up. She has participated in other fairs and festival pageants and in 2014, was named Miss Salem Apple Butter Junior Miss. She also holds the title of Miss Photogenic for the Lewis County Fairs and Festivals Pageant. In January, she applied with the Miss West Virginia Junior High School America by submitting an application and registration fee. She will be representing that organization this summer in Orlando.

 

“Preliminaries are July 4 and finals are July 5,” Swiger said. “She’ll spend that entire week in Orlando making appearances and taking part in areas of competition like personal interview, fun fashion modeling and evening gown.”

 

Finalists will also be judged on on-stage questions, she said.

 

Dakota became aware of the organization through her friend and fellow area pageant contestant Krystain Leonard. Besides their common interest in pageantry, the girls were brought together through the book that Krystain authored about scars; something Dakota - because of visible scars left from her surgeries - knows all too well about.

 

Krystain will also compete in Orlando this July. A senior at Robert C. Byrd High School, she enters the pageant with the title of Miss West Virginia Collegiate America.

 

The upcoming pageant does come along with quite a price tag.  Costs include those associated with travel and wardrobe. To help offset those costs, the families are hosting a pasta dinner fundraiser 12 noon to 3 p.m. April 25 at the Uptown Center, the former YWCA in Clarksburg. Pasta dinners are $6 each with dine-in and carry-out options. To purchase tickets, contact Swiger 304-838-0401.Walk-ins are also welcome. 

 

Dakota’s goal is to continue on with the America pageant system. 

 

Editor's Note: Pictured from top - Dakota, Dakota and Krystian at a recent showcase HH Platinum in Greensburg, Pa.and Dakota with judge Kathy Nesbit-Stein of "Dance Moms"