Four Pike County young women will compete for the first-ever title of Distinguished Young Woman of Pike County at the Claudia Crosby Theater Saturday night.

The Distinguished Young Woman program was formerly the Junior Miss Program.

Cathy Brunson, chair of the Distinguished Young Woman of Pike County board, said the board is following suite in renaming the program.

“First, the program went national, then Alabama officially changed the name of its program and, this year, we made the change,” Brunson said. “Last year, we didn’t have enough young women to host a program. However, we did have several young women from Pike County to participate in the at-large program. Mackenzie Blackmon won the at-large title and was Pike County’s Junior Miss.”

Brunson said the board is proud to have representatives from three different schools in Pike County to compete for the title.

Delainey Battles and Carla Faulkner will represent Goshen High School in the program. Liberty Kilpatrick will represent Pike County High School and Conleigh Gilmore, Pike Liberal Arts School.

“The contestants will be judged on scholarship, fitness, self-expression, talent and an interview with the judges,” Brunson said. “The interview will be conducted in the afternoon of the program and the scholarship portion of the program will also be pre-judged.”

Brunson said each contestant is required to have a form completed by the school counselor. The form includes the contestant’s grade point average and the classes taken.

That information is given to a panel of educators to be evaluated.

The four Pike County young women will compete in fitness, self-expression and talent at the Saturday night portion of the program.

“The Distinguished Young Women program includes talent and we have four very talented young women,” Brunson said. “ Carla and Liberty will do jazz dances and Conleigh and Delainey will sing.It will be a very entertaining program.”

The winner of the Distinguished Young Woman of Pike County program will represent Pike County in the Alabama Distinguished Young Women program in Montgomery in January.

The Pike County program will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Claudia Crosby Theater on the campus of Troy University. The public is invited. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.