Brookie represents county at Distinguished Young Women of Montana in Helena

Shelby Brookie is one busy (distinguished) young woman.

When she is not tending to the business of one of the dozen or so groups she belongs to, she is most likely working at one of the three jobs she currently holds down.

Brookie, a senior at Malta High School, added a little bit more to her plate recently when she entered the Montana Distinguished Young Women competition. Recently the Montana Chairperson of the program has moved out of Montana and a new format was adopted for this year’s Distinguished Young Women program which did not include any local competition, according to Malta’s Aimee Salveson. Girls were encouraged to apply and while we had more local applicants interested, Shelby was the only young lady that followed through with the process.

Two weeks ago, Brookie represented Phillips County at the Montana Distinguished Young Woman competition and though she didn’t take first place admitted that the adventure was well worth her time because of what she learned while there.

As far as activities go, Brookie is the president of the FCCLA, vice president of ReAct (as well as a four year member), a four year member of Malta Key Club, a flutist in the high school band, honor band and honor choir and has been to the State Musical Festival for the past three years (and guaranteed she’d make a return trip this year.)

When not busy with extracurricular activities, Brookie works several jobs in Phillips County including as an employee at Westside Self Service, time at the Malta Irrigation District and time on air at Malta’s KMMR.

“I’m a DJ there,” Brookie said. “On Sunday’s I do the 12:30 (noon) news. But I had to miss my shift last week because I was at this (Distinguished Young Woman) program.”

While at the Distinguished Young Woman Program, Brookie’s vast array of talents were put to the test. First on the table was a 10-minute interview with a panel of five people. Next was a fitness routine on stage consisting of many calisthenics including jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups etc. For the talent portion of the contest, Brookie sang Dolly Parton’s Jolene – though she did so in the style of Miley Cyrus. Lastly was the self-expression portion of the event in which Brookie was required to recite the answer to the question of “what three things do you know without a doubt?”

“My answers were ‘death is inevitable, so while you are alive do everything you can to make it the best’,” Brookie recalled. “The second one was ‘everyone you meet is struggling with some sort of battle, so always greet people with a smile and ask them how they are doing and genuinely care about what they say or how they feel.’ The last one was ‘that my generation will do amazing things in the future because we have such amazing technology at our finger tips and we will do something amazing like cure cancer’.”

As a participant in the Helena program, Brookie was offered several scholarships to schools including institutions in Idaho and many in the Southern United States.

“I got offered one at Troy University which was a full-ride scholarship,” Brookie said. “Troy is in Alabama and got offered plenty of scholarships to Alabama schools, but I don’t think I want to go there because I want to stay close to home.”

Brookie said when she graduates high school and heads off to college, she isn’t sure what her major will be, but added that she is sure that when she decides she is sure it will lead her into an occupation in which she will be able to help others.