Photos by Jed Blackwell
An angry citizen has words for Carrol Bradley, who spoke in support of the Holly Springs Fire Commissioners last Friday. Many citizens were angry about not being given the opportunity to be put on the agenda to speak at Friday’s meeting, which ended with the termination of Chief Lee Jeffcoat.

Even before the termination of Holly Springs Fire Chief Lee Jeffcoat at the end of last week’s called meeting of the Holly Springs Commission Board of Fire Control, the timing of the meeting, the notice of the meeting provided to the public and the meeting’s agenda were all called into question by several concerned citizens and at least one commission member.
The meeting, which took place Friday, July 23 at 2:45 p.m., was not set at the end of the commission’s work session on Monday, July 19. Hometown News received notification of the meeting on Thursday, July 22 at 2:15 p.m. by way of a faxed agenda. Citizens and commission members acknowledged that the agenda was also posted at the fire station at approximately the same time.
While notification was received in accordance with South Carolina Freedom of Information Act laws, which stipulate a 24-hour notice for called meetings, many citizens questioned the agenda itself.
At issue is the last line-item on the agenda, entitled “Citizens Agenda”. The names of five citizens who wished to speak to the board were listed, along with a notice that a request to speak must be made at least 24 hours in advance and is subject to approval.
The question on the mind of many citizens, and Commissioner Hugh Jackson, seemed to be how that procedure could be followed when notice of the meeting was given only minutes before the 24-hour deadline would expire?
Jackson voiced his concerns at the beginning of Friday’s meeting. After leading the invocation, Jackson asked to speak and was given the floor by Chairman Ryan Phillips.
“I was not aware of this meeting until 2:30 yesterday,” he said. “I was sent a one-line email about the meeting, with no agenda, nothing. I was just told to come to a meeting. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. I’ve been left out of a lot of things, and I’m concerned.”
Jackson said that he drove to the fire department, saw the posted agenda, and immediately questioned how five people had requested to speak at a meeting that he, as a commissioner, had no prior knowledge of.
“In my opinion, that’s not a proper way to do a meeting,” Jackson said. “I sincerely question the legality of this meeting. I’ll bet I was the only commissioner who didn’t know about it.”
At that point, Jackson stated that he wished to excuse himself from the proceedings and walked out of the meeting. After his departure, Jackson wouldn’t speculate as to how the five citizens got onto the agenda.
“I don’t want to go there,” Jackson said. “I think everybody has an idea, but I don’t want to go there.”
When asked directly after the meeting how he came to be on the agenda to speak, citizen Carrol Bradley told a Hometown News reporter “I don’t feel the need to answer that”. When pressed further, Bradley told the reporter that he should look into the issue himself.
Jackson was at a loss for what to do in the face of his exclusion by the rest of the commissioners.
“Apparently, they made an agenda,” he said. “I’ve just got one vote…I don’t know.”
Jackson feels that the agenda driving the rest commissioners is not the one in question from Friday’s meeting, but a personal one.
“In my opinion, it’s just hate,” he said. “It’s sad.”
When the floor was open to the citizens whose names appeared on the agenda, about half the crowd walked out of the meeting in protest of not being given an equal chance to speak. Many of those who left are members of a group of residents who have been meeting together since the controversy surrounding this issue first started. That group, Concerned Citizens of the Holly Springs Community,  issued a statement via email.
“We all have the freedom of speech and should exercise it,” the statement said. “We are just letting them know that we want to play fair. In the past meetings, there were quite a few people that were there for the commissioners. They had the chance to speak as well. Instead, they choose to ambush our freedom of speech in order to get their point across. They like to argue and we aren’t going to give them the benefit of an argument. This needs to be handled civilly and honorably. They are more than welcome to speak at a meeting where we are all given equal chances to do the same.”
The hard feelings between both sides and between the public and the commissioners is something that hurts Jackson
“I want this community together,” he said. “I’ve been here 73 years in another week, but I’ve never seen nothing like this before. The fire department’s been here since ‘72, and we’ve had no problems. Everything’s run smooth and all of a sudden this happens.”
Jackson has a simple solution, one that will cost him his seat on the commission but one he hopes will bring an end to the issue.
“I want the Governor - and I told one of his aides this yesterday - I want him to wipe the commission clean,” Jackson said. “I want him to appoint five more and go at it. I want to see this community come together.”

For more on this story, see this week’s Boiling Springs Sentry and The Middle Tyger Times.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH by Theron Willis
HOMETOWN NEWS

Pam Whitehead looks through the letters that she hasn’t read in over 40 years that were sent to her from a special someone who fought in the Vietnam War.

Sometimes the opening of an old dusty envelope hidden away in a corner can have an effect similar to time travel.
When Pam Whitehead of Lyman recently went through a 41-year-old stack of letters she was transported back to a time long ago. To a time before she was a mother and a grandmother,  back when she was a sixteen-year-old girl in Cowpens and a fragile and fateful love was budding between her and a soldier she hardly knew who was writing to her from the foxholes in Vietnam.
Whitehead, then with the maiden name Bolton, started correspondence with twenty-year-old Army Private First Class Paul Martinez while he was stationed at Fort Lewis in the state of Washington. Martinez was buddies with a guy named Ricky who was from Cowpens and dating Pam’s sister,  Gerri at the time.
Pam says that Martinez was Puerto Rican and worked in the shipyards in San Francisco with his family before joining the Army, but she knows very little else about his life. When Ricky went back home to Cowpens on leave,  Martinez went as well to see the sixteen-year-old young lady who had become his pen pal.
That two-week leave was the first and only time Pam ever saw Martinez in person. A shy and awkward attraction developed over the course of the two weeks and hinted at when he went back to Fort Lewis, but when Martinez was deployed in Vietnam in April 3, 1969,  he began to express feelings to Pam in his letters that might have otherwise lain dormant - feelings of his love for Pam and his hope of reuniting with her once his time was through in the dreaded war.
“We can have so much together when I get out,  I know it. It’s just a matter of time…Before you know it I will be in your arms and telling you I will never let go know (now) that I have you so close to me,” he wrote in one of his letters to Pam.
Martinez was stationed in the Quang Nam Province in South Vietnam with the first squad of the 101st Airborne Division and served as a rifleman.
Pam says Martinez had poor grammar and spelling but despite that his letters brought out a romantic and eloquent side. “Pam the way love moves is the way to (two) persons meet, may it be by thought or touch,” he wrote on the back of a picture he sent to her from Vietnam.
Pam also thinks Martinez could express things in letters that he would find hard to say in person. “He was kind of shy at first (in person) but I think he was more comfortable when he started writing letters,” Pam explains.
The affection and romance that Martinez expressed to Pam made her feel in ways she had never felt before in her young life.
“I dated and had boyfriends before but he made me feel like the most wonderful person in the world, like I was an angel and that I was so precious to him,” Pam says. She was reluctant and shy to reciprocate the same intense romanticism and passion that Martinez communicated to her through his letters.
“I was only sixteen and it was all just so new and strange to read what he was saying to me,” Pam recounts. “I just wasn’t sure how to respond.”
Martinez tried not to be forceful in his letters but also asked her to grant one simple wish. “Guess what Pam, you own part of my heart… I don’t mine you owning part of me at all…it’s not even costing you a thing except a genione I Love You once in a wy’ll in your letters. is it a deal? my heart for an I Love You in your letter’s.”
Pam finally started ending her letters to Martinez with an “I love you” and other affectionate sentiments but a few weeks later she realized it was too late. On May 23, 1969 she came home from school to find an ominous package from the US Army waiting for her. Inside the package was her recent batch of letters to Martinez as well as a note informing her that Martinez was killed on May 7, 1969 while his unit was trying to take Hamburger Hill. He spent only a little more than a month in Vietnam.
The heartbreaking thing with journeys back through time is knowing the outcome of events but being powerless to change it. As Pam read back over letters from Martinez for the first time in 41 years,  she realized that the dates on the letters were a countdown till his untimely death.
“This (letter) is 26th of April,  ‘69 so how long did he have to live?” Pam asked her voice breaking with emotion.
What was also painful was realizing that the promises made by Martinez to Pam of the times they would share once his time was up in Vietnam were fated to never happen.
“We can go driving all over the place with the car windows down and the radio soft and you sitting next to me,” Martinez writes to Pam as he envisioned a peaceful place away from the foxholes and bombs.
Looking back at the letters stirred up a cauldron of mixed emotions in Pam,  making her wonder what would have happened if Martinez would have made it back from Vietnam. Would their love have survived? Would they still be together today? How would her life have been different?
But soon enough it was time to leave the past and return to the present, to carefully put away the old and yellowed letters back in a shadowy corner of her house and likewise put the thoughts of Martinez and the long - gone possibility of a different life away as well. 

Staff writer Theron Willis contributed to this story.

When it comes to South Carolina you won’t find a dirtier word than taxes.
Have you ever heard a politician state taxes need to be increased?
If so,  you must have been having a nightmare.
However, falling revenue coupled with years of cutting taxes is about to come home to roost in South Carolina.
Of course your state legislature is working hard to balance their budget without raising taxes.
How are they going about doing that?
One way is to cut funding to local cities and towns through Aid to Local Government, a program that distributes state funds to municipalities across the state.
Spartanburg Assistant City Manager Chris Story noted the State General Assembly broke the formula that had been in place for years.  He said when they did that it shifted the burden to the local taxpayer.
Story added, “The formula kept a year-to-year fairness to the equation that allowed local government to predict and plan their budget.  Suspending that formula has led to uncertainty going forward.”
He added, “It used to be a straight-line equation where local municipalities got a straight percentage of the state general fund.”  Story explains, “If the state general fund grew in good years and shrunk in bad years, they just followed the formula.”
For fiscal year 2010 the General Assembly passed special legislation to break that formula and cut the Aid to Local Government Fund deeper.
Story states he understands the state legislature’s need to cut but “it creates some uncertainty” for local governments.
Story explained why local governments receive Aid to Local Government.  “Local governments help the state meet it’s obligations through mandates from state law,” he said.
While former President Ronald Reagan’s commandment to not speak ill of fellow Republicans is something that serves the GOP well, finger pointing may begin as the current recession continues to drag on and on and local municipalities are stretched to the breaking point.
In fact when you talk to local town and city officials you learn that local governments have tightened their belts so much there are no more belt holes left.

Local governments funding slashed
Many of the local municipal governments are weathering the storm of this recession because they were prudent with their budgets to begin with.

Cutting expenses to the bone
 In 2005 the city had 513 employees, today it is down to 425.  Story notes, “We now have forty fewer full time employees than they had eighteen months ago and we’re seventeen percent smaller than we were five years ago.”

Government mandates, insurance costs strangle locals
Many local government officials look at unfunded mandates as another burr under the saddle of local municipal governments.

 “No one wants to pay taxes but everyone wants service,” she said.

For the Complete Story, see this week’s Middle Tyger Times, page 7A.

Tyger River Assistant Fire Chief Shawn Harter demonstrates the use of a new pet oxygen mask donated to his department by Invisible Fence of the Upstate. The company has a nationwide program to donate specially designed masks to emergency responders in order to help save the lives of the estimated 500,000 pets affected by home fires each year.

The local Invisible Fence franchise donated last week a pair of pet oxygen masks to the Tyger River Fire Department to help revive cats and dogs who’ve fallen victim to smoke inhalation during a fire.
Tyger River Chief Jim Redd said that there have been several occasions where the department could have used the specially designed masks to revive pets.
“We’ve had numerous occasions where this would have made the difference,” Redd said during a small presentation ceremony at the department’s Locust Street main station in Lyman last Wednesday.
Mark Bondy of Invisible Fence of the Upstate said this is the second donation of such equipment in the Upstate for the nationwide program that has given pet oxygen masks to first responders for the past three years.“We’re just glad to do it,” Bondy said. “It’s a good fit for us. Our whole mission is to keep pets safe at home.”
Bondy brought Kayla, a 10-year-old yellow lab used as a therapy dog, to demonstrate how the masks are used last Wednesday. The specially designed mask fits over the muzzle of cats and dogs and thus achieves a tight seal not possible with masks designed for people.
According to a press release from Invisible Fence, unofficial estimates put the number of pets who die in fires each year nationwide at between 40,000-150,000,  most succumbing to smoke inhalation. It is further estimated that 500,000 pets are affected each year by home fires and that most emergency responders across the country are not equipped to deal with the needs of pets.
Bondy said his company is excited by the prospect of helping local first responders obtain the type of equipment that can save pets’ lives and looks forward to donating more masks to other local departments who apply for the equipment.
Department’s interested in applying for an equipment donation from Invisible Fence should contact Donation Coordinator Lisa Swayne Proud at (404) 229-2292 or via email at lisa.swayneproud@ifsouth.com.

For more local news and events, see this week’s Middle Tyger Times.

Demonstrating the intention of a group of Holly Springs residents to seek the removal of several fire commissioners at next month’s meeting of the county legislative delegation, this sign along Hwy 357 showed up after last week’s contentious commission meeting at which the commissioners were grilled by angry residents.

The apparent impasse between embattled Holly Springs Fire Chief Lee Jeffcoat and most of the fire district’s commissioners continued this week following a contentious meeting last week when the commission was lambasted by numerous community members.
Jeffcoat said Monday that commission Chairman Ryan Phillips returned to the fire station late the day after the Tuesday meeting and requested copies of commission meeting minutes going back to the 1970s.
Jeffcoat said that prior to 2008, all of the commission’s minutes were handwritten by commissioner Clara Edwards and have been archived. He said he explained to Phillips that it would take some time and effort to collect all the minutes for such a span of time and make copies. He said Phillips offered no explanation as to why the minutes were needed.
Except for that conversation last week, Jeffcoat said neither Phillips nor the other commissioners – specifically Roscoe Kyle, Kelly Waters or Clarence Gibbs – have spoken to him. He added that in the course of trying to repair the air conditioning unit on the department’s EMS truck he discovered that his departmental debit card had been deactivated, necessitating his having to pay about $200 for coolant out of his own pocket.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Middle Tyger Times or Inman Times.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has launched a preliminary investigation into allegations of impropriety at the Lyman wastewater treatment plant and had agents at the facility early last week, according to a spokeswoman for the agency.
Dawn Harris-Young, a spokeswoman for the EPA’s Region 4 office in Atlanta, confirmed the agency is in the early stages of an investigation into allegations of impropriety at the Lyman plant.
She said at this stage the agency was trying to determine if there was enough evidence of wrongdoing to warrant a full investigation. She could not say when the agency started looking into the matter, but sources with the town of Lyman said the town found out about the investigation June 25.
Mayor Rodney Turner said that he could not comment on the active investigation further than assuring the public that the best information available indicates that there is not and has never been a threat the Middle Tyger River, which receives the treatment plant’s outflow.
Turner did confirm that treatment plant supervisor Keith Vaughn is no longer employed with the town but would offer nothing further on the circumstances of Vaughn’s departure.
Asked who had assumed Vaughn’s responsibilities, the mayor said another employee at the plant had stepped up to shoulder some of the burden but that the town had hired consultant Keith Smart who has 30 years of experience in the wastewater field and will advise the town throughout the investigation.

The Holly Springs Fire and Rescue Commission’s apparent disregard for the state’s Freedom of Information Act continued last week as a response to a Freedom of Information request admitted the commission failed to take minutes at all unscheduled meetings for the past year.
A letter from attorney Kenneth Anthony representing the commission in response to an FOI request made by Hometown News via certified letter to Commission Chairman Ryan Phillips dated June 24 said that the commission “has no documents responsive to your request.”
The request asked to inspect or have copies made of all minutes notes and other pertinent records from all non-scheduled commission meetings from July 1, 2009, to June 16, 2010, with specific reference to any proceedings concerning financial matters of the department.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, specifically Section 30-4-30, any person or organization has the right to inspect any public record of a public body. This section further spells out that no written notice has to be given for an individual or group to inspect the minutes from the previous six months when the individual appears in person.
The commission’s apparent violation occurs in regard to Section 30-4-90 whereby the act requires all public bodies to keep written minutes of all of their public meetings. The act makes no distinction for “work sessions,” and Anthony’s letter in response from the commission on the face of it represents a further violation of the FOIA.
A further development along this line apparently occurred last Wednesday when the commission hired Inman accountant Chris Skinner of Taxpayer’s Choice to conduct an independent audit of the fire department. According to Chief Lee Jeffcoat, Skinner contacted him last Thursday to make initial arrangements for the audit and informed the chief that he had been contacted by the commission.
According to S.C. Press Association Executive Director Bill Rogers, the commission’s failure to give notice of any meeting at which they hired the accountant represents another violation of the FOIA and that any action taken during such an illegal meeting would itself be illegal. This is the same way in which the commission tried to terminate Jeffcoat June 16.
Also, apparently commissioner Hugh Jackson was not notified of the meeting and has been excluded from the commission’s decision-making process since the June 18 community meeting that drew such a large, angry crowd. In an interview Monday, Jackson said he has been belittled and excluded from virtually all of the decision making of the rest of the commission for some months.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Middle Tyger Times.

Photo By Jed Blackwell
Sandy Squires shows her support for Fire Chief Lee Jeffcoat with a homemade sign at Tuesday afternoon’s Holly Springs Fire Commission meeting.

The Holly Springs Fire and Rescue Commission stopped short of trying to terminate Chief Lee Jeffcoat a second time at its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday.
An overflow crowd of more than 150 turned out for the meeting, the time of which had been changed from the normal 7 p.m. to 4 p.m. and the location moved from the more spacious Holly Springs-Motlow Elementary School cafeteria back to the fire station.
Emotions have been running high throughout the community ever since the secret commission meeting June 16 at which the commission voted to cut the chief’s salary and schedule in half. When the chief refused, the commission voted to terminate him.
Since that time, Circuit Judge Roger Couch ruled that meeting to be illegal and barred the commission from implementing any decision made, effectively reinstating Jeffcoat.
Concerned citizens began arriving shortly after 2 p.m. to ensure a place among the limited seating. By 20 minutes before the start of the meeting, Fire Marshal Russell Hart was asked by Commission Chairman Ryan Phillips to limit the number of people in the building. Hart addressed the crowd and asked that those already inside consider giving up their space for someone waiting outside in the July heat. From that point on a steady stream of residents went out and came into the meeting.
Jeffcoat opened the meeting with a presentation of the department’s budget. He said that as of June 30 this year the department had $121,907 cash on hand with $2.05 million in fixed assets and $621,273 in liabilities for a total departmental liquidity of $1.55 million.
The chief said that even though the county bases its projections for tax income based on a 91 percent collection rate, the department has historically collected more than that minimum. Even with fundraising efforts zeroed out in the budget, projections based on the historical performance should see the department with a $23,770 surplus for 2010-2011.
Spartanburg County Auditor Sharon West was then asked to explain how the county derived its numbers for the district’s tax levy, but she quickly pointed out that there was little she could add to what Jeffcoat had already presented.
Commissioner Clarence Gibbs asked West what the legal maximum millage for the district should be, and she replied that her personal opinion was 16.6 percent based on the 2008 reassessment.
First Gibbs then commission secretary Kelly Waters tried to pin West down on whether the district was at risk of having to refund money collected at its current milage rate of 18, but she replied that she was not an attorney and suggested the commission contact one to make that determination.
“How did we arrive at the 18 mills,” Gibbs asked.
“Y’all voted on it in 2001,” West replied, resulting in an outburst of laughter among the audience.
West said after the meeting adjourned that she did not appreciate being blind-sided by the commission and their attempts to pin her down on a question she felt she was not qualified to comment upon.
“I didn’t appreciate being asked that,” she said. “They wanted to use me to say something against Lee and I wasn’t going to do that.”
Instead of moving next to consideration of budget amendments and eliminating the fulltime position of chief, Phillips directed the requested speakers to address the commission.
Commissioner Hugh Jackson was first to speak and told the crowd that on at least seven occasions the other four commissioners met privately to decide on department matters, including a Nov. 19, 2009 meeting at which they voted to reprimand Jeffcoat for releasing information to the public about matters discussed during a commission meeting. (Under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, all records pertaining to the meetings of a public body are considered open to the public.)
Jackson also said that the other commissioners apparently met on or about June 17 to hire attorney Ken Anthony. A decision “I still haven’t been approached about,” Jackson said.
He added that the change of Tuesday’s meeting to 4 p.m. was made without his input and that he wanted to express his concern about the way the business of the fire department was being conducted by his fellow commissioners.
A succession of speakers followed Jackson, most of them directing pointed questions at the commission. For the most part, the commission refused to answer the questions with many of them being greeted by a small smile by Phillips that seemed to anger many in the audience.
Kelli Cardoso, an organizing member of Concerned Citizens of Holly Springs Fire District, addressed Phillips and asked if Jeffcoat was fired was there a plan to replace the services he provides with other personnel. Evading the question, Phillips eventually said that as Jeffcoat remained the chief a plan for his replacement was not necessary. Cardoso asked the question again, this time to all the commissioners.
“If you fire Chief Jeffcoat tonight, who’s going to do all the things he does to keep the department running on a day-to-day basis,” she asked.
Jackson was the only commissioner to respond.
“I don’t know anybody that could,” he said.
Another concern was the cost of the Commission’s attorney, Kenneth Anthony. Matt Henderson asked the Commissioners directly who would be responsible for Anthony’s bill.
“I don’t know that we’ll see a bill,” Phillips said.
Anthony later stated that he volunteered his services. Hometown News has learned that Anthony is the attorney of record for a $400,000 property foreclosure against Commissioner Clarence Gibbs earlier this year.
Vice Chairman Roscoe Kyle subsequently made a motion to remove from the agenda the discussion of terminating Jeffcoat until a budget workshop could be held to clarify the department’s budget outlook. The proposal was seconded and passed unanimously, apparently ending for the time being plans to remove Jeffcoat.
A date for that workshop has not been set as Jeffcoat was directed to gather all the pertinent financial information to present to commissioners.

For more local news and events, see this week’s Middle Tyger Times.

Photo By Jed Blackwell

A Byrnes receiver hauls in a pass behind a Myrtle Beach defender during last week’s Southern Classic 7-on-7
tournament at Spartanburg High School. The Rebels beat Spartanburg in the tournament final to take the tournament title.

See story, page 1B in the Middle Tyger Times or any local Hometown News paper in the B section.

Miss Duncan-Lyman-Wellford 2010 Mary Catherine Pitts is competing this week for the Miss South Carolina title in Columbia. The 2007 Byrnes graduate would like to raise awareness of mental health issues if crowned.

After weeks of preparation and eager anticipation, Miss Duncan-Lyman-Wellford 2010 Mary Catherine Pitts is set to compete this week in the Miss South Carolina pageant in Columbia.
A 2007 Byrnes High graduate and Furman University junior majoring in music, Pitts says she’s excited about the pageant and the opportunity being crowned represents.
“I’m excited,” she says. “No matter what happens this week, I think I’ll definitely be glad I did it.”
She says of her experience as Miss DLW that she has learned a great deal about herself and has particularly enjoyed the chance to speak to students in the schools she attended growing up in this area.
“My platform is mental health, and I remember when I was in eighth grade at D.R. Hill when Miss South Carolina came to speak and thinking that was the neatest thing,” Pitts says. “It’s especially great being from here and getting to go back to the schools that I went to.”
She says that with family members suffering from mental health issues, she is able to bring a personal experience and passion to her platform that she hopes will make a favorable impression with pageant judges.
Pitts says that with the acute fiscal crisis in South Carolina, spending for mental health programs is one of the first things to be cut. She adds that in recent years the state’s standing in terms of the level of services it provides for mental health treatment has continued to fall.  Once these programs are cut, she says, it’s actually more expensive for the state due to increased healthcare costs by treating mental conditions through other programs not necessarily designed to address them.

recent years the state’s standing in terms of the level of services it provides for mental health treatment has continued to fall.  Once these programs are cut, she says, it’s actually more expensive for the state due to increased healthcare costs by treating mental conditions through other programs not necessarily designed to address them.
“One in four Americans suffer from some type of mental illness,” she says. “We really have to do something about it – it’s not something that should be cut.”
Pitts says that if she is crowned Miss South Carolina, she plans to help raise awareness of mental health issues through speaking engagements around the state.
Among the highlights of winning the local pageant, Pitts says the support of the community has been gratifying and that she will take that support with her to compete for the state title.
“As cheesy as it sounds, it’s nice to give back to the community,” she says. “I wouldn’t have wanted to win any other title but this one.”
Even though she’s faced hard work and challenges as a Furman student, Pitts says preparing for the state pageant is the hardest thing she’s ever done and that she’s ready to compete.
“It really is so much more than a beauty pageant,” she says. “It really forces you to step out of your comfort zone.”
She says one of the biggest things judges look for in contestants is confidence, from their self-possession and poise during the interview process to being able to walk across a stage in a swimsuit.
“It really isn’t comfortable to go into a room with five judges and be asked any question under the sun,” Pitts says. ‘It really does instill in you a level of confidence.”
Regardless of the outcome, Pitts says she is glad to have taken the chance to compete in the pageant and to have a chance at a role that can truly make a difference in lives, particularly those of young girls.
“You’re never really going to get another opportunity like this to take a year and make a difference,” she says. ‘It really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

 For more local News and Events, see this weeks Middle Tyger Times.