By Maggie Nixon
Correspondent
WEST LAFAYETTE — The Rees Theater marquee welcomes Miss Purdue University back to town for Thanksgiving break, and boy is she ever thankful. Alicia Dennie, a sophomore at Purdue and Plymouth High School graduate (the daughter of Cory and Teresa Dennie) won the title just a week ago.
“I am so thankful to have the town of Plymouth supporting me and I always feel so welcomed when I come home from school,” Dennie said. “Purdue is where I’ll be for the next few years but I’ll always know where I came from and be thankful for the support the entire community always gave me with all my different accomplishments.”
Along with the community support, Dennie had most of her family at the contest cheering her on last Saturday. “The support from my family has meant everything to me,” she said. “It has helped motivate me my entire life to be the person and athlete I am today. Without their constant support I would never be living out my dream as a featured twirler at Purdue as the second ever Miss Boilerette — and now another dream as Miss Purdue University.”
Last year’s first runner-up in the scholarship competition, Dennie is now eligible for the Miss Indiana pageant in June. Last year, she was a Silver Twin the the Purdue All-American Marching Band. This year, she is Miss Boilerette, as she stated, only the second one chosen in school history. Oddly enough, both Miss Boilerettes have also won the Miss Purdue title.
“In 2010, Rachel Bazzell was given the first Miss Boilerette title when she auditioned for a Purdue Twirling spot and they decided to combine her current title of Miss Purdue and the Boilerette Twirling Line name into a single featured twirler names Miss Boilerette,” Dennis said, “so I think it is pretty cool to be able to share the title of Miss Boilerette and Miss Purdue with Rachel.”
As a student and now Miss Purdue, Dennie will have a lot of involvement on campus, from speaking at events to being in parades — and performing her talent at events, as well.
“I have been endowed with a $2,000 scholarship for winning first place as well as a $150 scholarship for winning the talent portion,” Dennie said. Her talent for the contest? Of course, twirling. “I am still in shock, it doesn’t seem real that I used to be in awe of the former Miss Purdue’s and now I am one. Much like my twirling goals at Purdue, I am living out a very honorable title. I am so proud to have been chosen as an ambassador for the best university there is.”
Preparations for the competition kept Dennie true to herself and her ambitions. “I worked a lot on practicing my talent (baton twirling) as well as speaking about different topics that could possible come up during the competitive process,” she said.
Dennie, who is a teacher for Daphne’s Dolls in Plymouth, helping take over in Daphne Stapleton’s retirement, said the twirlers she teaches also motivate her. “My little girls I teach have been such a motivator to me during my time spent at college. My mentoring and instructing with baton twirling is what sparked my platform inspiration for Miss Purdue. I was once the little girl who looked up to the twirlers and pageant winners and now its very heartwarming to have the roles reversed and give back to my hometown community when I teach baton each summer and West Lafayette’s community when I get the chance to meet and perform for so many little girls who were just like me. I have been able to be their role model by showing them huge goals and dreams don’t get achieved in once day, that it takes hard work and support. Which is one thing twirling teaches you right off the bat and I feel many of my students have started to see that same desire I had in themselves.”
That determination and way of thinking is also what has given Dennie the success she is now relishing with this title. “I get my drive from wanting to achieve my goals, using self motivation. As a kid when I was working on a new trick I would say to myself that I had to catch it a certain amount of times or do it a certain way if I wanted to twirl at Purdue one day. I would practice alone so often and only have my mom come watch me catch something I was proud of or watch a routine once, “ she said. “I was always the kid who was able to motivate myself when I realized I could actually make my biggest dream a reality. Some people truly lack the support and confidence they need to just believe something is achievable and I’m thankful to have had both. My platform for Miss Purdue is based off of finding your dream and knowing that it won’t just fall into your lap but it takes a lot of hard work to get there and with the right mindset anything is possible.”
