Page 101 - Iris Tennessee Teen Judges Book 2022

What can you do during your Tenure of Service as a Titleholder to impact your community? I strongly believe that the best thing I can do as Miss Iris Tennessee Teen Volunteer, is to spread my platform, its message, and its purpose to help as many people as possible. I believe it is paramount that I maintain involvement with various community service opportunities in the Jackson/ Madison County area and other places in the state of Tennessee. As a titleholder, my goals would be to spread the message of my platform, “Hand Up: From Hungry to Healthy,” collect food for local and regional food banks, and volunteer at places such as ComeUnity Café and RIFA. I want people to realize that members of our community struggle to meet their basic needs. It is our duty to offer a hand up so that they can find a way out of hunger and into a place of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.
What has been your involvement with your platform?In the summer of 2021, I was looking for service opportunities for my school, and I chose to spend time at ComeUnity Cafe. After my first day volunteering, I fell in love with everything about ComeUnity Cafe. I spent over fifty hours volunteering there and at other nonprofits in Jackson because I loved seeing and being a part of the great work they do for people in our community.
As Student Council Vice President of Jackson Christian, I have played an integral role in organizing a fundraising drive for RIFA during September 2021, which is Hunger Action Month. This fundraising drive was a cumulative effort of multiple schools in Jackson, Tennessee. It resulted in over 8000 pounds of food collected by Jackson Christian alone for RIFA to give to people struggling with food insecurity or living in food deserts. As the rising Student Council President this fall, my goal is to grow the amount raised by our school as much as possible.
At the beginning of 2022, I partnered with the Jackson Madison County School System to find the school in most need of help supporting a food pantry for its students. I contacted the guidance counselor of Nova Early Learning Center and began fundraising to keep their food pantry full so no kid goes without. For fundraisers, I’ve held spirit wear days at my school where students pay two dollars to wear spirit wear (jeans and school t-shirts) on non-spirit wear days (which are usually Fridays). Another fundraiser I’ve organized, which is probably my favorite so far, is a partnership with Buff City Soap of Jackson. I have created a custom soap that I am selling as a gift set for Mother’s Day. I chose for the soap to be orange in color and have a fresh citrus scent to represent the color of Hunger Awareness, which is orange. A small note will complete each gift set thanking the buyer for their purchase and explaining how it will support the fight against hunger in the Jackson/Madison County Area.
What inspired you to first become involved in your platform? After spending a lot of my summer at ComeUnity Cafe, I decided that the mission of the Café perfectly aligned with the message that I wanted to spread in a platform for pageants. Food insecurity is something I can relate to personally from my past but no longer live with, so I am passionate about helping people feel valued even when they cannot fully provide for themselves. I am passionate about doing what I can to help as many people as possible fight against food insecurity. I am also passionate about communicating the importance of these passions to my community so that more people can join me and my efforts.
If you are selected as the winner, how would you mobilize and market your platform nationally? I would utilize social media and other in-person speaking engagements to educate others about food insecurity – the vastness of the issue and the need to erase the negative stigma associated with being food insecure. By using social media and other in-person appearances, I can also share different opportunities for everyone to help fight against food insecurity in their communities and even organize more food drives for my community. Lastly, I would seek to highlight the efforts of ComeUnity Café, RIFA, and other local food banks.
How would you utilize social media in order to positively further your position as a titleholder if you are selected as the winner? I would use this opportunity to spread awareness of my platform while simultaneously showing others all the benefits pageants can bring to young girls and their communities.