WYOMING — Britney Cheskiewicz is a busy girl these days, competing in pageants representing Greater Pittston, presenting animal safety and adoption awareness programs, handling a high school workload and, in her spare time, dressing as the Pittston Tomato mascot.
Cheskiewicz, 17, of Wyoming, is currently a junior at Wyoming Area and keeps a busy schedule. To top it off, she’s going to appear in her school’s play “Mamma Mia” in April.
Pageants are important in Cheskiewicz’ life; after all, she’s been competing in them since she was 7 years old.
Recently, she was crowned Miss Greater Reading’s Outstanding Teen, a local pageant to Miss Pennsylvania’s Outstanding Teen. During that pageant, she was awarded the highest interview score and sang her way to the highest talent score.
Locally, she has held the crowns of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Outstanding Teen in 2018 and the 2017 Miss Tomato Festival Queen.
Statewide, she was first runner-up at the USA National Miss Pennsylvania Teen in 2017.
A daughter of Marie and Craig Cheskiewicz, she feels pageants are a way to help her with her future plans double majoring in Political Science and Pre-Law at Penn State.
“I hope to get accepted to Penn State where I plan on double majoring,” Cheskiewicz said. “I plan on going into politics. The reason I picked politics is because, if there’s any way I can make a change in the world, that would be the way to do it.”
In addition to keep up with her workload and rehearsing for the school play at Wyoming Area, she participates in the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club.
“Last year, I received first place at Region 16 for Public Speaking and this year I received first place in the Job Interview portion in Region 16 and I’ll be going to FBLA state at Hershey in April,” she said.
Cheskiewicz has a soft spot for animals and uses pageants as a platform to create an animal safety and adoption awareness program.
“I go to schools across Pennsylvania and give presentations on how to properly approach animals in a safe manner,” she said. “I dress up as a Disney princess to cater to the kids and I sing a song to them.”
Cheskiewicz has an ambitious goal of creating an ambassador program utilizing the program she developed on animal safety and adoption awareness.
“I’m looking for ambassadors for the program, not just across Pennsylvania, but the nation,” she said. “Ambassadors will receive the program by email and they can go into schools near them and present that presentation.”
The animal safety and adoption program is a PowerPoint presentation with photos and examples of how to conduct a seminar. She hopes to get the word out about her ambassador program through social media and newspaper interviews throughout the country.
Cheskiewicz has been volunteering at the SPCA of Luzerne County and created the program after speaking to local SPCA education/volunteer coordinator Chelsa Feldmann.
“I love animals so much and I don’t want to see kids getting hurt by something so near and dear to my heart,” Cheskiewicz said.
Besides competing at the Miss Pennsylvania’s Outstanding Teen Pageant in June, she will meet with local lawmakers to develop cat laws in Pennsylvania.
“There are no cat laws in Pennsylvania, besides leaving them outside, and I think that’s wrong,” she said. “I plan to fight for that.”
