JULY 2020
YOUR LOCAL WEATHER
17-19
WEEKEND
TODAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Partly Cloudy
Partly Cloudy
Partly Cloudy
98/77
• Number 134 830 • 379 • 2234
Volume 55
B
g rou
u By o yo ht T
94/76 94/77 LEGEND
PLUMBING & ROOTER
830 • 303 • 3335
The Voice of
Seguin Today
Bid for Junior Miss Title to go virtual By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera
(Seguin) -- Organizers of this year’s Distinguished Young Women’s Program are not letting the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic ruin years of tradition. Toni Winters, the chairperson for the scholarship program better known in this area as Junior Miss, says rather than cancelling, program organizers will be hosting a virtual scholarship contest this weekend. “We started up with the girls in March and we had a couple of practices and got everybody in gear and then COVID hit and schools shut down. So, we stopped and we were still going to continue but then, we got word from nationals that we couldn’t continue that we had to shut the program down. Nobody was able to do anything. So, we shut down for a while and held our breath to see what was going to happen and I started off with nine girls in March and I ended up with six girls in June and they were still interested. They wanted to do the program. So nationals went digital on Zoom and did their actual national program in Mobile, Alabama in June via Zoom so we decided we could do the same thing. Locally, we could have practice here, spread apart and that’s what we’ve been doing,” said Winters. Winters say the contest has been outlined with all regards to safety for both the committee and the young ladies. She says although the
Eleanor Puchot
Emma Luu
Kenzie Kluth
Jeannie Woodlee
Kamdyn Holt
Liv Hernandez
contest will be done individually, the announcement of winners and the program itself will be pieced together at the end. “We are going to record them Friday night, each one individually on the stage in all the categories and then Saturday morning, they have the interviews with the judges and that’s going to be done via Zoom (individually) and then the judges will get the parts that we recorded
K e ith K rus e 979-551-0106
and view those, and will score the girls and then send their scores in and then on Saturday evening at 4 o’clock, we are going to have the girls come back to the Texas Theater and we are going to announce the winners and then we release the video of everything to the public on a certain app that we will give the girls the information to go to. It won’t be for the whole wide world but if you know somebody, you can get the information and watch the girls,” said Winters. Winters says the local Junior Miss program for years has afforded cash and scholarships for dozens and dozens of young ladies throughout Guadalupe County. She says the contest has hailed both state and even a national winner. She says it did not seem right to cancel something that makes a big difference in a student’s life and could impact their future. “My heart just wouldn’t let it go. I wanted them to have their opportunity to have their program as a junior in high school,” said Winters. The six participants in this year’s contest include Jeannie Woodlee, Liv Hernandez, Kenzie Kluth, Emma Luu, Eleanor Puchot and Kamdyn Holt. Again, the winner of the contest will be announced on Saturday. Those winners will also be announced and showcased in the Seguin Daily News.