Zoe Evans to carry tradition of service forward as Miss Spring City 2026

SPRING CITY — When Zoe Evans was crowned Miss Spring City 2026, she stepped into a role that carries more than a sash and a parade wave.

Spring City announced Evans as the 2026 queen after the May 1 pageant. Soraya Zubeldia was named first attendant, and Jocie Harmer was named second attendant.

The result gives Spring City a new slate of young representatives for a program that blends scholarship, public service and small-town representation. Evans plans to carry that emphasis forward through her service project, which will launch and direct a Little Miss Spring City pageant for younger girls.

“Our pageant was great,” pageant chair Madi Sorenson told the Messenger. “Our contestants were so poised, prepared, and confident. We are so grateful to our outgoing queen Haleigh Butterfield. She had a wonderful year and accomplished so much. We are excited to be represented by our new Miss Spring City queen Zoe Evans and her attendants, Soraya Zubeldia and Jocie Harmer.”

The city thanked Sorenson, Christi McGriff and Tiffany Allred for organizing the 2026 pageant in an official Facebook post. It also thanked judges Shealee Tucker, Julie Reese and Kiersten Wheeler.

The Miss Spring City Scholarship Pageant asks contestants to do more than appear onstage. The city’s pageant application packet describes a program for Spring City residents ages 15 to 20 that includes a personal interview, a talent presentation and a written proposal for a service project benefiting Spring City and its residents.

The queen receives a $1,000 scholarship, issued directly to a college, university or trade school after completion of the service project. The winner also may become eligible to compete in Miss Sanpete. Royalty members help with city celebrations, community events and required parades across Sanpete County.

That structure gives the pageant a civic purpose beyond crowning a winner. It also places each queen in charge of a project meant to serve the community in a visible way.

For Evans, that project will focus on younger girls. By launching a Little Miss Spring City pageant, she plans to create an opportunity for younger participants to build confidence, practice public presentation and take part in the same community tradition she now represents.

Recently, Spring City contestants have proposed or completed projects tied to public spaces, children, food needs and the city’s historic character.

Haleigh Butterfield, the 2025 Miss Spring City, completed a service project that produced a metal bench for the Spring City Cemetery. Spring City posted on Facebook that the bench would be “cherished for many years.”

Cynthia DeGrey, who oversaw the pageant until this year, wrote that Butterfield designed and welded the bench herself.

Butterfield’s court included Harmer as first attendant and Lola Allred as second attendant. Harmer now returns to the royalty as the 2026 second attendant, giving the new court a member with a year of experience representing the city.

The service emphasis also has deeper roots in the town’s pageant history.

In 2008, Spring City royalty Katie Healey and Brittany Black reported to the city council on service work they had completed during their reign, according to the Sanpete Messenger archive. They assembled gift packages for Sanpete County soldiers serving in Iraq, gathered letters from Spring City Elementary students and used proceeds from a July 24 water slide to buy fleece blankets for soldiers.

A year later, the town experimented with what the Sanpete Messenger called Spring City’s “annual non-pageant.” The 2009 format dropped traditional pageant elements such as talent performance, stage walk and “glitz and glamour.” Contestants were judged on an application, resume, essay about how they could serve the community and an interview. Amanda Walker became Miss Spring City that year.

The modern program has settled into a hybrid form. It keeps the recognizable elements of a small-town royalty contest, including a crown, attendants, parades and public appearances, while emphasizing interviews, talent, service proposals and scholarships.

That balance fits Spring City, where public events often carry the weight of the town’s historic identity. Residents regularly point to Main Street, the Old School, Pioneer Day, Heritage Day, Candlelight Christmas and the city’s preserved pioneer-era setting as part of what makes the community distinct.

The young women selected as royalty become public-facing representatives of that identity. They appear at celebrations and community gatherings, but their service projects also leave physical or practical marks, from cemetery benches and Main Street flowers to playground fundraising, food-bank support and youth activities.

Evans, Zubeldia and Harmer now inherit that role for 2026.