POULSBO — The Miss West Sound Scholarship Program is accepting applications for its 2018 Miss West Sound and Miss West Sound’s Outstanding Teen competition.

Applicants for Outstanding Teen must be between 13-17 (grades 8-11). Applicants for the Miss competition must be at least 17 and a graduating high school senior and cannot be older than 24 on Dec. 31, 2018.

All contestants will be judged in talent, private interview, evening gown, and on-stage question. Miss contestants will be judged in lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit; Teen contestants will be judged in lifestyle and fitness in active wear.

The new Miss West Sound and Miss West Sound’s Outstanding Teen will be crowned the weekend of Oct. 14, 2017. They will both compete for state titles in May (Teen) and June/July (Miss) 2018 and will make appearances throughout Kitsap County during their year of service.

2017 Miss West Sound Anikka Abbott is working to increase awareness of domestic violence and stalking. 2017 Outstanding Teen Allison Newhouse is an advocate for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, as she is deaf in one ear and wears a hearing aid in the other.

Each participant in the 2018 scholarship program will be awarded a scholarship for participating, with the opportunity to receive additional awards. The Miss West Sound Scholarship Program provided more than $12,000 in scholarships last year (more than $150,000 total since its inception in 2010) and is consistently among the top three Miss Washington local programs for the scholarship dollars it awards every year.

Applications must be postmarked by May 31 and are available online at www.misswestsound.org. Contestants must be available to attend a pre-interview and talent review in mid-June and a daylong orientation on July 15. Other event opportunities are available for those contestants who are interested.

For more information, contact Executive Director Amanda Cheatham at MWSDirector@comcast.net.