Tehachapi's own Tiffany Rea named Miss Kern County

For the second year in a row, City of Tehachapi employee 23-year-old Tiffany Rea, has been named Miss Kern County for the Miss United States Pageant.

In 2019, Rea as Miss Kern County was a first runner-up for Miss California United States. Shortly after she earned this title, she was approached to register as Miss Nevada, where she had resided at one time. As Miss Nevada she placed in the top 10 contestants for the Miss United States title.

Rea has been competing in pageants since she was 9 years old. After observing her cousin compete and with a background in dance and other sports, Rea thought pageantry would be a fun new adventure. She has competed on local, state and national levels and has actually held a title every year since she started.

As part of her pageant experiences, Rea fell in love with community service and helping others, which has also led to her interest in the criminal justice system. She will be graduating in June from Cerro Coso College with an Associate of Science degree in Administration of Justice, and an Associate of Liberal Arts degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences. She will be commencing online study with Liberty University for a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice-Crime Scene Investigation with a minor in Psychology. She has aspirations of someday working for the FBI.

As a City of Tehachapi employee, Rea has also been part of the COVID-19 resource team which was created to ensure that our community has accurate information accessible in one place. Along with Officer Jeffrey Packebush of the Tehachapi Police Department, Rea has contacted local businesses to offer support and receive information as to special hours, services, etc., that the businesses are offering to residents during this very challenging time. COVID-19 Emergency can be accessed on the official City of Tehachapi website, http://www.liveuptehachapi.com.

"My main goal is to mentor people from all walks of life and help them get excited to volunteer. I work with others and help them identify their strengths and weaknesses, and how to apply those to their service work. I even created my own group called 'Caring Crowns.' In this initiative, I [have] worked with girls with medical disabilities and handicaps in order to show that they can be in pageantry too and they can also make a difference," Rea said. "I have received many local, state and national community service awards, including two Presidential Volunteer Service Awards."

Besides working on beach cleanups, organic community gardens and other environmental concerns in her role as Miss Teen Earth United States, Rea has worked with the American Legion and veterans groups to reach out to deployed soldiers and veterans by organizing car washes and bake sales; writing thank you cards and letters; making scarves; stuffing school backpacks for children of deployed soldiers and organizing in food drives.

She has volunteered at the Christmas party at Woodward West for the Jamison Center orphanage, created backpacks of supplies for foster children at Koinonia Family Services, collected items for Uganda orphanages, as well as donated items to a women's shelter in Los Angeles for women and children facing domestic violence. In addition, Rea has worked with the Police Department collecting coats for the homeless, participating in a toy drive for disadvantaged children and collecting items for homeless animals. She has also recently developed her own social media platform.

Congratulations to Tiffany Rea on her most recent achievement! In the words of the American poet and author Maya Angelou, "Nothing can dim the light which shines from within."th