Agenbroad said Sommer recently met with him as part of her role as the Miss Ohio Junior Preteen and shared some of her community service projects with him.
“She is really involved in the community,” Agenbroad said. “She really took me aback with her poise. I like to see young children with her manner and poise.”
Sommer said she has “always been interested in helping the elderly and enjoys doing arts and crafts, music and cards with them.”
Her community service since winning the state crown in July includes selling lemonade to raise $700 worth of school supplies for the Dayton International School at Residence Park; volunteered 15 hours at HarborChase of Beavercreek Nursing Home; and raised more than $300 to help support the SHARE Foundation of Dayton. In addition to meeting Agenbroad, Sommer also helped lead the seventh-inning stretch at a Dayton Dragons game.
Sommer, who was born in 2014 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, is the daughter of Matt and Lilibeth Simon. Matt Simon is a retired first sergeant after spending more than 23 years in the Air Force. He is a real estate investor, while his wife is a licensed real estate agent for an area company. Sommer has an older brother, Briceton Simon, 11, who is a sixth-grader at the Dayton Regional STEM School. Briceton hopes to become a mechanical engineer someday, according to his father.
Matt Simon said his daughter received an anonymous recommendation two years ago to interview for the National American Miss pageant organization when she was seven. While she was accepted, Sommer decided not to go forward.
In February, Matt Simon said Sommer wanted to do it this year. The family went to Austin Landing to interview. Sommer was invited to compete in July at the state pageant in Columbus where she won the Miss Ohio Junior Preteen crown. Sommer will compete for the national crown against the other 49 state winners this Thanksgiving week in Orlando, Fla.
In addition, Sommer has also won several categories in the pageant in addition to the state crown.
For fun, the Five Points Elementary School student said she likes swimming and playing in the park with her brother. Sommer said she enjoys competitive swimming, arts and crafts, fundraising through lemonade sales, volunteering at a local nursing home, and playing cards with friends and family.
Her personal motto is “Smile everyone, because we are all beautiful!”
While her favorite school subjects include reading, math and science, Sommer said she enjoys reading the most.
“I like reading because you can really go on your own adventure,” she said.
Sommer is always learning something. Recently she began music lessons to learn the ukulele and taking voice lessons.
She said she hopes to attend Stivers School for the Arts for grades 7-12 to study theatre. However, her long-term goal is to graduate from the College of Dentistry at The Ohio State University.
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