Teen relives memorable night in Mexico

Since coming as close as it gets to winning Miss Missouri Teen, Miss Audrain’s Teen Bridget Caldwell has been busy, including a stop in Mexico last week to visit the Missouri Veterans’ Home.

Caldwell, Florissant, visited with her mother, Tara, and got a chance to meet some of the Veterans’ who live at the Missouri Veterans’ Home in Mexico. She also visited with the Ledger and talked about what it was like to finish first runner-up at Miss Missouri Teen last month.

It was really exciting to get that especially with my best friend winning,” Caldwell said. “We really connected over the week and just seeing her win and we were right next to each other.”

Caldwell is referring to 2023 Miss Missouri Teen Gracyn Rouse. Caldwell relived the moment when she and Rouse stood together alone in the middle of the stage at Miss Missouri. Both faced each other holding arms with their heads bowed waiting to hear the announcement of who won.

“I was the first person to hug her and tell her congratulations,” Caldwell said. “It was awesome.”

The two plan on spending more time together and maybe doing some joint events. Caldwell, who will be entering her freshman year of high school this fall, said one of her teachers attended Miss Missouri to support her. She said he pitched an idea to her.

“He’s thinking about having us both come into a class and talk to students,” Caldwell said. “I’m really excited to do that.”

Up next for Caldwell is participating in the “Voices of Democracy” essay contest that is sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).  Caldwell broke some news while in Mexico speaking to a group of Veterans. She said she recently took some flying lessons and is thinking about a career with the Air Force after high school.

“It talks about Veterans and all things military which I’m really excited about,” Caldwell said about the essay contest. “I’m also looking around looking to see what else I can get involved with.”

Caldwell plans to continue competing in the Miss Missouri pageants whether it’s in Audrain County or somewhere else. The next Miss Audrain Teen competition is in November.

“I love competing in this organization so much,” Caldwell said.

Teen comes to Mexico to connect with Veterans

Miss Audrain Teen Bridget Caldwell has had a love affair with Veterans and their service since she was a young child.

Caldwell, who is 14 and getting ready to start her freshman year of high school, said when she was five years old she knew she had a special connection with Veterans. Instead of playing with classmates or siblings, Caldwell was being told stories from one of her heroes.

“When I was five years old my best friend was a World War II Veteran,” Caldwell said. “I would go over to his house and he was really grumpy at first but as soon as I would start to talk to him about his service he would just light up and I knew I wanted to connect with more Veterans just like him and I set out to do that.”

Caldwell’s community service initiative is called Bridge the Gap Between Youth and Heroes and is part of her Miss Missouri competition platform. Her work has included working with United Service Organizations (USO) including hosting a Christmas party when she was in second grade. She has volunteered for Toys for Tots and an organization that gives out Christmas trees to Veterans. Caldwell said she decided to start her platform when she began to notice she was the only kid in the room.

“I realized there was a lack of youth involved,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell was in her element last Thursday, July 13, when she visited the Missouri Veterans’ Home where she called bingo and helped other Veterans with their cards. Every Veteran Caldwell interacted with had a smile from ear to ear and had Caldwell laughing.

“Just to see that they know they are remembered, that they see you are involved and that people care about them,” Caldwell said when asked why it’s important. “That’s what’s important to me. Just seeing their smiles and how excited they get.”

Caldwell said it’s important to get her peers involved.

“If there’s a way for our youth to get involved I would always encourage them to do that,” Caldwell said. “It’s so beneficial to these incredible men and women but it’s so beneficial to me, our youth and our teens.”