2020 Program Pulled Off With Lots of Changes From Norm As Community and Volunteers Worked To Pull It Off
May 18, 2020
Dayton, TN -- Rhea County Distinguished Young Women Program faced uncertainty when covid-19 caused changes in gathering rules for the community. After some uncertain days, it was finally announced that Distinguished Young Women Program for Rhea County would happend, but without family, friends or anyone in the audience. There were limits on volunteers, staff and participants that made the process unusual to say the least. Despite the limitations, the program did survice and a new Distinguised Young Woman for 2020-2021 was selected as Camryn Carder was selected from among 15 competitors on May 17, 2020. Bailey McCoy finished as 1st alternate, Adelyn Benoit finished as 2rd alternate and Noelle Clark finished as 3rd alternate.
Amy Smith, the program directors was kind enough to share with Rhea County Magzine some of the interesting aspects of holding a program without the normal resources that were there in the past.
Amy, talk about the cast of volunteers that are there year in and year out teaming up to make the program happen.
"I have a wonderful group of women that work with me. Next year, Candice Tilley and I will celebrate our 25th year of working with DYW. We are old! Every person on the board has been through the program in their respective year, and I think that makes us unique. All of us have jobs, some of us have children, but everyone of us brings something special to the group. We all value each other’s ideas with the focus on what’s best for our participants. We block out a full 6 weeks a year to devote to Rhea County’s DYW program. There are 10 of us: Candice and myself, Cindy Revis, Jennifer Forgey, Mandy Cook, Kati Williams, Julie Gillette, Stephanie Killingsworth, Dr. Kristina Smith, and Holly Yawn."
How did you pull off this year's program with so many roadblocks due to covid-19 restrictions?
"The way we HAD to do the program was certainly a challenge. Not one time did we say,”Let’s just not have a program this year.” We had a full calendar planned, with volunteering , practicing , celebrating with special events and all of that came to a stop."
"It was sad for the girls to not get to do any of that. We began with posting the fitness routine so each girl could learn it at home. The biggest challenge was whether or not we were going to be able to use Bryan College. We owe Dr. Livesay and the staff at Bryan a huge thank you for allowing us to be there. With that blessing , the deal was that we could only bring in 5 girls at a time , so the week of the program, that’s how we practiced. All 15 girls never got to practice together. Each group of 5 had only 3 days to practice on the stage."
"Because of social distancing , we were only allowed to video what they did on stage. For the scholastic part of the program the guidance counselors were very helpful to get their transcripts together for us even though we weren’t in school. We were advised to do the interview portion by zoom, but that is one thing we did not want to take from the girls. We wanted them to have the experience of a "live" in person interview. So thanks to the Robinson family, we were able to use the Robinson Guest House, to hold the interviews. The judges were able to comfortably watch the video from their stage performances and judge the other 3 categories. It just goes to show how important the community is to this program! With all the things that had been taken from the girls this spring , this is one thing we didn’t want to take from them. And girls can only compete their Junior year, so we were committed to these young ladies."
"I want to also say, this program doesn’t happen without scholarship money. Our chamber of commerce continued to support us even though they had to make the tough decision to cancel the strawberry festival. There so many other businesses and individuals that financially supported the scholarship program , and we are always thankful beyond words. A struggle for us, however, is by not having an audience, we made no money at the door. Next year, our working funds will be tight , but we will survive."
Talk about how these young ladies, all juniors in high school came together to complete the program.
"I can’t say enough how proud we are of these young ladies. Watching them do their thing on stage. We were in tears. I told them so many times, “girls you deserved an audience.” They needed the cheers, they needed the adrenaline you get when 200 people are clapping for you . They deserved to feel special and the feeling of “ I can’t believe I stepped out if my comfort zone and did this !” And sadly, their parents missed it . My heart goes out to them . Yes they will get a DVD to watch, but it’s not the same. We got so many requests from people in the community asking if they would get to see what the girls did . That made us link it to YouTube. It is so wonderful that our community, every year, comes to support our Rhea County girls! We have never done this , but this year we awarded every participant with a $100 scholarship . Every girl walked away with something."
"All in all , with the help of the community , and our DYW board , the class of 2021 was able to have a program ! We are proud of all 15 ! Not sure I said enough about the girls. They did not quit! They persevered and learned the fitness routine on their own . We practiced interviews through zoom, and they all had wonderful talents . They were very appreciative and polite young ladies."
