Riverchase resident Elaina Burt crowned 2023 Miss Alabama's Teen

Riverchase resident Elaina Burt on Sunday was crowned the 2023 Miss Alabama’s Teen from among 38 contestants from across the state.

Burt, a 17-year-old junior at Briarwood Christian School, was competing as Miss Jefferson County’s Teen and now will move on to represent Alabama in the Miss America’s Teen competition in August.

“I’m so excited,” she said Monday night. “I’m still on cloud nine. I woke up this morning so happy. I just feel so content.”

The Miss Alabama’s Teen competition was held at Thompson High School’s performing arts center. Burt won her talent preliminary, performing ballet en pointe to a medley from the “Oklahoma” Broadway musical. She also won her evening wear and on-stage question preliminary and the community service award for her social impact initiative, which she calls “Charley’s Chance.”

For six years, Burt has watched her cousin, Charlie Wilson, battle epilepsy caused by a gene mutation called SMC1A.

Charlie is nonverbal, stays in a chair all day long and is fed through a tube. She’s on medication for epilepsy, but if she didn’t have the medication, she would continuously have seizures all day, Burt said.

Burt started a nonprofit called Charlie’s Chance and now works to raise awareness about epilepsy, advocate for people suffering from it and raise money to enrich their lives.

She took it upon herself to organize a fundraising gala for Epilepsy Foundation Alabama this past November. The gala, Wings of Hope, drew about 200 people and raised more than $32,000.

She also has served as an ambassador for the Epilepsy Foundation, helping with other events and encouraging family and friends to support seizure training so more people will know how to respond and help people when seizures occur.

Now, she’s excited that her title as Miss Alabama’s Teen will give her a better platform to extend her efforts, she said. Her goal is to obtain funding to get teachers in schools certified in seizure first aid in every school district in the state, she said.

For winning the Miss Alabama’s Teen title, Burt was offered a four-year full-tuition scholarship to multiple universities across the state. She plans to take advantage of the scholarship from Auburn University, where she wants to study aviation and later become a commercial airline pilot for Delta.

She flies with Over the Mountain Aviation at the Shelby County Airport and already has completed her first solo flight, first cross-country solo flight and first night flight.

Burt, the daughter of Zane Burt and Eric and Kalika Gibbons, also received another $7,500 scholarship from Deborah Wiggins, The Clothes Tree by Deborah for winning Miss Alabama’s Teen and came into the state competition with more than $25,000 in other scholarships from previous competitions.

Others in the top five for Miss Alabama’s Teen were first runner-up Anna Bella Foster, second runner-up Dru Bramblett, third runner-up Carson Grace Champion and fourth runner-up Christina Norman.

Others in the top 10 contestants were Caelyn Dolar, Evie Smith, Ali Mims, Reagan Hanson and Abigail Wideman.

Find out more about Burt in this previous story from the Hoover Sun