Distinguished 'crown'
The four finalists for the Distinguished Young Woman of Moses Lake at the end of the competition on Saturday: Second Runner Up Tori Moser, Madison Kultgen, Distinguished Young Woman Addy Carlile and First Runner Up Sydney Garza.
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Backstage in the auditorium of Moses Lake High School with the finalists in this year’s Distinguished Young Women competition (left to right): First Runner Up Sydney Garza, Second Runner Up Tori Moser, Distinguished Young Woman Addy Carlile, Madison Kultgen, and Jennifer Gaddis, who sits on the Distinguished Young Women of Moses Lake board and won the competition in 1985. “I want to give back to the program,” Gaddis said. “The program gave me a lot, and it’s time I give the program back some of what it gave me.”
Tori Moser speaking during the introductory performance to Saturday’s Distinguished Young Woman competition.
Madison Kultgen walks the stage during the Distinguished Young Women competition at the Moses Lake High School auditorium on Saturday.
Addy Carlile strikes a pose as she finishes the dance she performed as of the talent portion of the Distinguished Young Women competition on Saturday.
Sydney Garza performs the Star-Spangled Banner in American Sign Language during the talent portion of the Distinguished Young Women competition on Saturday.
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake High School junior Addy Carlile was named the Young Woman of Distinction for 2024 at the Young Women of Distinction’s annual competition Saturday night.
Along with First Runner-Up Sydney Garza and Second Runner-Up Tori Moser, the three young women will represent Moses Lake.
“It’s a really great experience,” Carlile said afterward. “I feel like I’ve met so many great people, and I’m so excited to spend the rest of the year with these people.”
“We’ve definitely gotten close and kind of tight,” added Sydney Garza, first runner-up. “We’re all going to stay pretty close this next year.”
Carlile, Garza, Moser and Madison Kultgen were the four MLHS juniors vying for the title of Distinguished Young Woman of Moses Lake for 2024. The two-hour competition featured demonstrations of public speaking, physical fitness and talent, and capped 10-minute, individual interviews with contest judges as well as the submission of transcripts for high school and any college-level courses they may have taken.
The competition, which went national in 1958 as America’s Junior Miss, was renamed Young Women of Distinction in 2010 and aims to foster scholarship, talent and leadership in young women by providing scholarships to contestants to pursue education after high school. The theme for the evening was “Find Beauty Inside,” abbreviated as FBI, giving contest organizers a motif for the opening number, a dance performance with last year’s winners Distinguished Young Woman Emma Fulkerson, First Runner-Up McKenna Meise and Second Runner-Up Lydia Jensen, who all performed in dark blue vests bearing a sparkly gold “FBI” logo and dark sunglasses.
“The glasses were hard to see out of,” Kultgen said.
During the public speaking portion of the competition, Kultgen said the one piece of advice she would give to young people is to just be themselves.
“Be confident and love themselves,” she said. “These ladies behind me are beautiful and everyone I love and friends with are beautiful.”
While most of the contestants expressed an interest in furthering their education at university, Garza stood out by saying she plans to attend the Western Welding Academy in Gillette, Wyoming, after she graduates.
“The trades just interested me,” Garza said. “I just tried out the class, and I love it. Now I go to (The Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center) and I’m the only girl in my class there for the welding manufacturing program. And I love it.”
The job of being one of the distinguished young women means being out in public in a formal capacity, attending county fairs and riding in parades and speaking to civic groups.
“One of my favorite things to do was go to parades,” Jensen, the 2023 second runner-up. “We really made our smiling muscles stronger this last year.”
While they were named distinguished young women for their upcoming senior year, Garza said the actual work of the job — representing Moses Lake and the Distinguished Young Women organization — starts immediately.
“What are we already doing? We’re talking to the Columbia Basin Herald,” she said. “That’s already started. It’ll take some work over the summer to get trained, and then, once we hit (the Grant County) fair, we’ll jump right into it.”
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
