Hartselle native Elizabeth Wesson is competing this week in the 90th Miss Alabama pageant at Samford University in Birmingham.

Elizabeth Wesson | Photo courtesy of www.missalabama.org

Wesson qualified for the Miss Alabama pageant by winning the title of Miss UAB in October 2010.

Her father, Bob, said the family is looking forward to the competition, which got underway Wednesday night with the first of the preliminary competitions.

“We are just so proud of Elizabeth,” her father said. “It such a great honor for her just to be there among the rest of the contestants. After playing in the golf tournament, I got to meet a lot of the contestants and all of them are great people. It really is a great scholarship program.”

Elizabeth, 21, is majoring in music at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Her platform is Act F.A.S.T., which is a stroke awareness and prevention program.

Bob said she chose this platform because after her mother, Bobbie, suffered a stroke while attending an Auburn bowl game in Orlando when Elizabeth was 12.

“She definitely wants to promote awareness of stroke prevention because it has affected our family,” Bob said.

For the talent portion of the competition, Elizabeth will sing a medley of tunes entitled “Love Is.”

Bob said his daughter decided to start competing in pageants after receiving inspiration from reigning Miss Alabama Ashley Davis.

“They are soriety sisters at UAB and she encouraged Elizabeth to compete in the Miss UAB pageant,” Bob said. “Sure enough, 12 pageants later, she won Miss UAB and is going for Miss Alabama. The real reason why she participated in the pageants is because the Miss Alabama scholarship program is one of the better scholarship programs out there. She’s definitely doing it for the scholarships.”

The preliminaries will continue through Friday and the Miss Alabama finals will be Saturday.

“We’re just excited for her to be there,” Bob said. “We’re going to be there rooting her on.”