Amanda Maynard, 18, was crowned the first Miss Silverdale Jan. 9. Maynard, of Port Orchard, is a senior at South Kitsap High School and plans to attend Olympic College and Washington State University. She plans to use her new position to raise awareness of dental hygiene for young children and increase donations to

local food banks.

Kitsap’s new royalty will be helping to raise money for scholarships — the pageant handed out more than $33,000 in scholarships to contestants this year — and participating in parades.

Michele Wasson, executive director of the pageant, said the contest had more contestants from Port Orchard, which accounts for why the first Miss Silverdale in the pageant’s history doesn’t live in Silverdale.