Special to The Post-Searchlight

Brinson native and Southwest Georgia Academy alumnus Maggie Bridges was crowned Miss Cobb County 2012, in Marietta, Ga., on Aug. 4.

Bridges, 19, was selected the winner of the scholarship pageant — sponsored by the North Georgia State Fair — from a field of 18 contestants.

Bridges was the recipient of a $10,000 cash scholarship and a host of other prizes and will represent Cobb County at the Miss Georgia Pageant in June 2013. Miss Georgia will advance to compete in the Miss America Pageant.

An official preliminary for the Miss Georgia Pageant, judging was based on interview (25 percent), talent (35 percent), evening gown (20 percent), life-style and fitness in swimsuit (15 percent) and on-stage question (5 percent). For her talent, Bridges performed a vocal presentation of “Somewhere” from the hit musical “West Side Story.” Her platform is “Impacting the Lives of Others through Volunteerism,” which she plans to promote throughout her reign.

Bridges is a graduate of Southwest Georgia Academy in Damascus, a member of the First United Methodist Church in Bainbridge, and the daughter of John and Cathy Bridges of Brinson. She is currently enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she studies chemical engineering. She is involved as a tour guide and an orientation leader for new students as well as other philanthropic endeavors at Georgia Tech. She is the public relations chair for the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority.

The Miss Cobb County Pageant is open to young women in the five-county metro Atlanta area which includes Cobb and four adjacent counties. Contestants have to either live, work or attend college in the area, which includes The Georgia Institute of Technology. Young women must be 17-23 years old, single and never married, and a high school graduate.

Bridges also holds the title of Miss Georgia Fairs. After being selected Miss North Georgia State Fair last fall in Marietta, she won the title of Miss Georgia Fairs in the state contest for Georgia Agricultural Fairs in Atlanta in January. She will crown the new Miss Georgia Fairs in Atlanta next January.

Bridges has extensive prior experience with scholarship pageants. In 2010, she was the first-runner up in Georgia’s Outstanding Teen Pageant, a part of the Miss America system for teens aged 13-17  and was the second runner-up in that pageant in 2009.

In promoting her previous “Fit for Life” platform, she was successful in raising funds for Children’s Miracle Network by holding a 5-K and fun run to benefit the national platform of the Miss America Organization.

Photos Courtesy of Miss Cobb County Scholarship Pageant