News Photo by Julie Goldberg Miss Michigan Mallory Rivard reads to Alcona Elementary School students on Friday.

LINCOLN — Alcona Elementary School students had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Friday to meet a special guest: Miss Michigan Mallory Rivard.

Rivard, who is a first grade teacher at Bay City Public Schools, was at the school for “Milk & Bookies,” an event where students could enjoy milk and cookies with her and take a book home with them.

“As Miss Michigan, I advocate for literacy across the state and this is something where we just created and it’s taken off all around,” Rivard said.

Alcona teacher Ali Yokom used to compete with Rivard in Miss America competitions, so she invited Rivard to come read with the students.

“When she won, I made sure we had the opportunity,” Yokom said.

Yokom said it was exciting to see the students interacting with Rivard Friday. She said the students have been excited about the event since flyers went home.

“Coming from a small town community, there’s not many of these opportunities that come around for our kids, so to be able to provide something like this and have the opportunity for them to see that there’s scholarship opportunities in our state and different things even at a young age is really cool,” Yokom said.

Rivard told the students that she received college scholarships from competing in Miss Michigan competitions while growing up, so the students now know about that chance.

Rivard said the students will not remember her name or her face, but they will remember how she made them feel. She said that’s what being Miss Michigan is all about.

“It’s about making them feel special and that’s really what I hope to do,” Rivard said. “It’s just so cool because to them, you’re not Mallory, you’re not a first grade teacher, you’re a celebrity and to even bring joy to one kid’s face in this community would just mean the world to me.”

Rivard is attending the Miss Sunrise Side Scholarship Pageant at Alcona High School today at 7 p.m.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.