Knox County Distinguished Young Women: Part 1

A few weeks back, I got an email from one of my high school class members and friends, Kelly. It was in regards to the upcoming Distinguished Young Women [DYW, formerly called Junior Miss] scholarship program. She was asking myself and one of our other classmates to participate as judges for the competition.

I didn't know what to expect, really, but I went ahead and said yes.

Kelly was the 2003 Central Knox County Junior Miss. I was the 1st runner up, and the other judges, save for one, were also participants in the program throughout various years. Jenn, a few years our senior, was the 2000 Greater Knox County JM.

There are four other judges here with me this weekend, and after a couple of weeks of studying the 21 contestant bios, competition rules & standards, and the program itself, we all came together at the historic Russell Cooper house here in my hometown, Mount Vernon, Ohio.

So far I have zero regrets on agreeing to this. Actually, I'm honored.

Mount Vernon has so much history, and much of that is contained in the buildings of the city. They've been around longer than most of us, and because of that, we all have fond memories of places like the Memorial Theatre, where the competition is held each year. I am not alone in remembering my own participation in plenty of drama, musical and classic theatre productions from the time I was in elementary school until I graduated high school. Tonight we set foot as a group back on the stage, in front of our community in the audience, to be introduced as judges for the 2014 DYW competition.

joellen. tina. corin. jenn. kait.
2014 knox county distinguished young women's judges panel

Tonight was a blast. We were hosted for dinner at the Russell Cooper house before changing attire and then transported to the theatre for our introductions and the first night of judging the contestants.

I realized tonight that Knox County has been busy lately, producing talent much bigger than its claim on a map. The young ladies I saw onstage tonight brought back a tier of memories from 11 years ago when I was a participant in the program, and then further back into my late elementary days when we started annually serving as a host family for girls from the state level program. Junior Miss - excuse me, Distinguished Young Women - is a part of my late childhood and adolescence and to be on the other side of the table now is an honor.

It's late, and with day 1 of evaluations complete, I need some sleep so I can be back at it again tomorrow for the second and final day.

Good luck, ladies!!

xo | cmd