Written by Tanya Terry, with photos provided by Shari Kaye Burdt
Shari Kaye Burdt of Swartz Creek was recently crowned Ms. Senior Michigan 2024 at age 81.
The pageant is for women 60 years old and up. Contestants compete in the areas of talent, philosophy, poise and modeling. Burdt was the oldest of the contestants.
She will now compete in the Nationals Competition in Atlantic City, NJ at the end of September with at least 45 other state pageant winners. There, she will perform her amazing talent act again: tap dancing to the song “Stepping Out With My Baby.”
Burdt has been tap dancing since age 3.
“I did it professionally for a long time until I got married, and I had a dance studio: Shari Kaye’s School of Dance,” she said. “ I worked with the Pelio School of Dance, too.”
Nowadays, Burdt works in the community to support veterans and would like to see others do so.
In addition, she loves traveling and gardening.
She explained to the Courier why she decided to enter the pageant.
Burdt lost her husband after 61 years of marriage. She also lost two sisters, a brother, a brother-in-law and her mother.
“It’s been kind of a rough, tough year; that’s what made me decide to do this,” stated Burdt. “I went skydiving. At 81, I slept in a treehouse at 3,500 feet above sea level.”
Now, Burdt is also able to cross competing in the Ms. Senior Michigan pageant off her bucket list.
Burdt still works at Doyle Ryder Elementary School. She has been part of the Flint Community Schools system for 52 years. This year, she will be volunteering most of her time running the library at Doyle Ryder.
“The kids haven’t had a library in so long,” said Burdt. “I love people. I love kids. I love coming up with new programs for reading programs. I did a boot camp reading with kids that are behind levels, trying to get them up to speed.”
Burdt previously worked for AmeriCorps, which offered a one-on-one reading program for kids. So, she used some of the strategies used at AmeriCorps for school afterschool programs.
“It was very successful.”
Burdt started out as a parapro for Flint Schools. She taught reading programs in preschool. Then, she worked an instructional material clerk for 35 years – first at Stewart School, then at Doyle Ryder after Stewart closed. She also went to schools and set up AmeriCorps reading programs.
Burdt does tap dancing and theatre with the schools, as well.
“This year we did ‘Snow White and the 13 Dorks.”’
Sixty-seven years ago, Burdt won the Teen Queen Saginaw Valley pageant.
She told the Courier how she will now continue to represent the Ms. Senior Michigan pageant and senior women everywhere in a positive way.
“I will definitely be promoting Age of Elegance, which is the senior women, to let them know they have a lot of possibilities for them. I would like to see more seniors get involved with kids in the reading program – men and women. We have very few men at elementary schools that give little boys someone to look up to. Our seniors have so much wisdom, and they’ve been through so much. They can share they kind of love and understanding…That’s one of the things I really want to work on this year – getting more seniors involved…It’s going to be an exciting year!”
