Galesburg’s 11 year old, Lia Barraza Sloan, (daughter of Leno and Sabrina Barraza) was crowned the new Junior Miss Illinois 2025 alongside newly crowned Li’l Miss Illinois 2025 – Elsie Bieri of Mercer County on Sunday, July 14th. The Miss Illinois Youth Program Pageant is held each year in July in Muscatine, Iowa in conjunction with the Miss Iowa Youth Program. The Miss Illinois Youth Program provides opportunities for young ladies ages 6-13 from across the state to earn thousands of dollars in scholarships. This year over $10,000 in scholarships were awarded to participants between the two programs.
The Miss Illinois Youth Program is modeled off of the Miss America Program with contestants competing in interview, on stage question, talent, outfit of choice and party dress. The program fully prepares the contestants to go on to compete in the Miss Illinois Teen and Miss Illinois competition which Miss Barraza Sloan dreams of doing.
Miss Barraza Sloan spent months before the competition preparing for her vocal talent performance to showcase her love for singing and selected the song Beyond from Moana 2. Her other focus prior to the competition was advocating for her Community Service Initiative which she calls Hands and Hooves Working Together. She has spoken with many local organizations to spread awareness for the benefits of therapeutic horseback riding and more specifically to raise financial support for Rainbow Riders Therapeutic Horseback Riding Center located in Monmouth, Illinois. Barraza Sloan was able to raise over $3,000 for Rainbow Riders in hopes that the funds could be used to assist them in building an indoor arena so that they could offer therapy lessons year-round and not be impacted by varying weather conditions.
During her reign Lia plans to continue advocating for her Community Service Initiative by making appearances throughout the State of Illinois as well as continuing to do other acts of service to benefit her community.
To learn more information about the Miss Illinois Youth Program or Miss Barraza Sloan’s year as Junior Miss Illinois 2025 you can follow them on Facebook.
Miss Illinois Youth Program
https://www.facebook.com/missillinoisyouth?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Junior Miss Illinois 2025 – Lia Barraza Sloan
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556546152795&mibextid=LQQJ4d
