Giving back to community, Watson wins Miss Fulton County

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Miss Fulton County and Miss Congeniality 2025 Kallie Watson

Through with her freshman year at Purdue and wanting to honor the community that raised her, Kallie Watson was crowned Miss Fulton County 2025 last week.

Watson is a 2023 Rochester grad. She was also named Miss Congeniality.

“It feels amazing,” Watson said. “I’m so blessed to be able to be put into this position, and I feel so supported and valued by our community, and I feel so thankful for the judges for choosing me and so grateful to be able to represent our county.”

Watson has never been in 4-H.

“This is something new for me, but I just think that the reason I wanted to do it was to give back and represent Fulton County,” Watson said. “So even though I wasn’t in 4-H, I was still involved in many other ways to give back to the community.”

Watson entered the pageant when she was a junior in high school but did not place.

“This was my second time doing it, so I kind of had an idea what I was doing,” Watson said. “Just being able to represent Fulton County… Fulton County has done so much for me in the past few years. While I was in high school and ever since I’ve graduated, they have supported me in so many ways, so just to be able to wear this sash around my chest to be able to represent Fulton County is something really special to me that I can give back to.”

As far as preparing for the pageant, Watson got off to a late start because she was in Paris, Belgium and London for a study-abroad trip during the spring semester.

“Well, I actually was abroad for a few months, so I didn’t get to start practices until mid-June,” Watson said. “That was when I started preparing for everything, but practices started back in May while I was gone. We had practices every week. Every day I was practicing my speech and doing practice questions with my parents. So just practicing a few times a week.”

Watson enjoyed her trip and got to see parts of the world that many do not often get to see.

“It was awesome,” Watson said. “Just to experience a different culture for a couple of weeks, it was so nice to see parts of the world that some aren’t fortunate enough to get to, but I’m really glad I was.”

Watson said she had to try on only one dress before she found the one for her. She will have to find more dresses for future Queen duties.

“I only tried on one,” Watson said. “It was my sister’s (Lilly) Prom dress, so thank God she kept on to that. Yeah, it was great. I have to find a few more dresses for some parades and the State Fair.”

As for preparing for the interview process involved in the pageant, she said she did some mock interviews a couple weeks before the interview day of the pageant.

“So we had some people come into our community who volunteered their time to help us practice, and then I just did a couple questions at home with my family,” Watson said. “They just experimented on me, but I’ve had a lot of interview experience being in school and applying for jobs, so I kind of knew what I was doing, but a lot of the questions were specific to myself and Fulton County that I needed to get some practice on.”

RTC caught up with Watson right after the Sheep Show at the Fulton County 4-H Fair Monday. She had been at the fair for seven hours.

“This has just definitely been a lot,” Watson said. “I have been here since 9 a.m., and I know I’ve got a couple more days like this. I knew it was going to be an all-day type of thing, but being in this heat, it’s definitely something I can handle, and I’m so grateful to be here, but I just didn't realize how long I was going to be here, but I’m having fun doing it, so it’s OK.”

Watson played soccer, basketball and softball during her high school athletic career.

“I think being an athlete my whole life shaped me who I am,” Watson said. “I’m not afraid to talk or to perform in front of large groups or crowds. It’s given me a lot of confidence and grit to be the person I am today. I’m not very shy when it comes to doing these kinds of things, so I’m so grateful for my experience as an athlete, and it’s definitely made me into the strong and independent woman that I am today.”

Of course, the difference between competing in a sport and competing in the Miss Fulton County pageant is that a sport has a scoreboard to track how you are doing as the game progresses. There is no such scoreboard in a pageant.

“When you’re down in a game, that makes you want to push even harder and try even harder to come back and bounce back,” Watson said. “In the pageant, you have no idea what you’re doing. You base it off how you feel coming out of that interview or how you feel coming off stage. So I just went into each round and tried my best, and I just trusted the whole time that God was going to put me in whatever position he had planned for me.”

Watson thanked program director Adrianna Smith for leading the contestants as well as 2024 Miss Fulton County Chesnee Miller, 2023 Miss Fulton County Rachel Luce and former queen Cassie Smith with preparation.

“They helped us in our walk, they helped us in our practice questions, in our speeches, in our dresses,” Watson said. “They helped us in so many ways, and we’re all extremely grateful for their help.”

Watson is an interior design major at Purdue. She said she wants to design school buildings.

“During COVID, that’s all I watched on TV was HGTV,” Watson said. “So I was like that seems kind of fun, and I feel like I’ve always had a creative side to me, and this is just something that I really want to do. That’s something I’m also really passionate about – just to give children an area where they can really focus and a place where they can love going to school.

“I just want to make people comfortable where they’re at.”