Miss America 2025, Abbie Stockard, will return to her home state this week for a homecoming celebration presented by the Miss Alabama Organization.
Fans can meet the new Miss America at three public events set for Saturday, Feb. 22, in the Birmingham metro area. Here are the details:
Autograph party, 10 a.m., Soiree Event Gallery, 2132 Lorna Ridge Lane, Birmingham. With appearances by Stockard, Miss America’s Teen Peyton Bolling and Miss Alabama’s Teen Ali Mims (named first runner-up for Miss America’s Teen). About 20 state titleholders from the Miss America class of 2025 will be on scene, as well. Admission is free.
Miss America celebration dinner and show. Dinner at 5:30 p.m., Vestavia Country Club, 400 Beaumont Drive, Vestavia Hills. Show at 8 p.m., Wright Fine Arts Center, Samford University, 800 Lakeshore Drive, Birmingham.
The two-hour show will feature performances by Stockard, Miss America’s Teen Peyton Bolling, Miss Alabama’s Teen Ali Mims and the top 11 contestants from the Miss America class of 2025. Some former Miss Alabamas will be part of the show, and a production number will feature contestants from the 2024 Miss Alabama competition. Heather Whitestone McCallum, Miss America 1995, will be a special guest.
Tickets are $125 for a dinner and show combo. It’s $20 for the show only, $10 for children ages 3-10, free for children age 2 and younger. For reservations, send an email with the names of guests to [email protected]. Deadline is noon on Wednesday, Feb. 19, according to the Miss Alabama website.
Ticket payments can be made by check, credit card, Venmo or PayPal. Call the Miss Alabama Organization at 205-871-6276 for more info. The Wright Center will sell tickets at the box office before the show, as well.
A limited-edition commemorative poster of Stockard as Miss America will be available at Saturday’s autograph party and evening events.
Alabama’s Abbie Stockard was crowned as Miss America 2025 on Jan. 5, 2025, at the Walt Disney Theater in Orlando, Florida.(Courtesy of Miss America IP LLC)
Stockard, a Birmingham native, became Miss America on Jan. 5, 2025, competing in the national pageant as Miss Alabama. Fans from her home state cheered as Stockard was crowned in Orlando, Florida, watching from the Walt Disney Theater or viewing a livestream on the Miss America YouTube channel.
Stockard, 22, grew up in Vestavia Hills and is a student at Auburn University, where she majors in nursing. Her goal is to earn an advanced degree, a doctorate of nurse anesthesia practice, and specialize in pediatrics. She’s a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority at Auburn and has spent three years as a member of the Tiger Paws dance team.
Stockard has other appearances scheduled in Alabama this week, including events on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 19-20, at Auburn University. She’ll be at Neville Arena on Wednesday, for example, when the Auburn men’s basketball team faces the Arkansas Razorbacks, and is set to dance with the Tiger Paws.
READ: Who is Abbie Stockard? Miss America 2025 is the fourth winner from Alabama
Stockard is the fourth Miss Alabama to win Miss America, following in the footsteps of previous winners Deidre Downs Gunn, Miss America 2005; Heather Whitestone McCallum, Miss America 1995; and Yolande Betbeze, Miss America 1951.
Whitestone McCallum, who served as a judge at this year’s Miss America competition, congratulated Stockard on social media after her win.
“There she is … your new Miss America 2025 Abbie Stockard,” Whitestone McCallum said in a Jan. 7 post on Instagram. “She represented my home state Alabama at the competition. Still that was not the reason why she got my attention. When I listened to her private interview competition with the preliminary judges on the film, I found her as a humble, thoughtful, loving and sharp woman. She was more than ready to serve America. Congratulations to Abbie.”
READ: Beloved Alabama Miss America praises new winner from home state: ‘Humble, thoughtful, loving’
Alabama’s Abbie Stockard was crowned as Miss America 2025 on Jan. 5, 2025, at the Walt Disney Theater in Orlando, Florida.(Courtesy of Miss America IP LLC)
As soon as she was crowned, Stockard began her tenure as Miss America. She’s been traveling across the country for the past six weeks, making public appearances, connecting with people she meets and serving as a brand ambassador for the Miss America organization. Stockard also is using her platform to raise awareness about her philanthropic effort, Be the Change: Find a Cure — Cystic Fibrosis Awareness.
Stockard’s agenda as Miss America has been a busy one. She visited New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX, for example, and was an honorary event official at Daytona International Speedway. Stockard was a guest at Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s State of the State address, danced at a Utah Jazz basketball game and was interviewed on the ABC show “GMA3: What you Need to Know.”
Stockard also appeared at the Southern States Inaugural Welcome Ball in Washington, D.C., and was feted by actress Sharon Stone at the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Red Dress Collection Concert in New York City.
Stone, who hosted the Heart Association’s event Jan. 30 event, described herself a “a little pageant girl from Pennsylvania,” and gave Stockard kudos on stage. The actress —who earned fame for her work in the movie “Basic Instinct” and won a Golden Globe for her role in “Casino” — also touted Stockard’s efforts to bring public attention to the issue of cystic fibrosis.
“You may not know this, but as a pageant girl, I do,” Stone said, holding Stockard’s hand in a video posted on Instagram. “You have to have a platform when you’re Miss America. It’s not just a beauty contest … This Miss America has a platform, and it’s cystic fibrosis. And I want you to know that because she’s working very hard around this country — so that you do know that when we do the pageants, we do it because it gives us a scholarship to go to college, and we need it. When we do these (pageants), we don’t do it just because we want to be pretty. So thank you, Miss America.”
The Miss America organization has a three-year partnership with the American Heart Association and Go Red for Women, to raise awareness of women’s heart health and promote fitness.
Stockard was one of six women who earned the AHA Go Red for Women Leadership Award at Miss America this year, in affiliation with the heart association, These awards go to contestants who promote women’s heart health in their communities.
