Miss Shelby County 2005 Katie Boyd begins competition this week for Miss Alabama.

Winner of the Miss Alabama competition will compete in the Miss America pageant later in the year.

Last year’s Miss Alabama Deidre Downs went on to compete and win the title of Miss America. Downs, a Pelham High School graduate, was chosen as Miss Shelby County 2000.

Boyd says she has enjoyed her time as Miss Shelby County.

&uot;Shelby County has always been dear to my heart and to be able to represent you as Miss Shelby County 2005 was wonderful,&uot; she said.

Boyd will compete through talent, interview among other features during Miss Alabama week which will culminate Saturday night with the crowning of Miss Alabama.

Boyd goes into the state competition with a focused platform, a campaign to stamp out underage smoking.

Her program titled &uot;Take 5-An Underage Anti-Smoking Campaign&uot; challenges students to spend five minutes educating themselves on the dangers of underage smoking.

It is &uot;designed to encourage, educate and enable middle school-aged students to resist all tobacco products,&uot; Boyd said of her campaign.

&uot;Throughout this past year, I have been able to spread my message of Take 5 … to over 85 schools, civic organizations and church groups,&uot; Boyd said.

She said she has distributed colored wristbands throughout the state encouraging students to be smoke-free.

She has also distributed a Take 5 video to every public school system in the state.

&uot;I will continue to fight the battle of underage tobacco use as statistics show that 2,000 children start smoking regularly every day,&uot; Boyd said.

&uot;Many programs are taught by intimidating people such as school counselors, administrators and school resource officers.&uot;

Her program, she said, is taught on &uot;a more personal level.&uot;

&uot;The mission of Take 5 is to enable all students to resist tobacco usage and equip these students with the necessary information to avoid the peer pressures of ever beginning to use tobacco,&uot; Boyd said.

Boyd is a junior at the University of Alabama majoring in dance and communicative disorders.

She is a member of Lambda Sigma honor society, Gamma Beta Phi honor society, Phi Eta Sigma honor society, Golden Key, Cardinal Key and serves as an arts and sciences student ambassador at UA.

She also served as Miss University of Alabama 2004.

In addition, Boyd is a graduate of Youth Leadership Shelby County where she received the Youth Leadership Award and the Youth Scholarship Award for her community service project, &uot;We Care Bears.