Five Hills royalty garner holiday parade awards with city float

Special to Leader-Press 

Bing Crosby’s 1942 version of White Christmas played as the Copperas Cove Five Hills royalty waved to the crowds lining Main Street.  The local parade was the first award that the titleholders won this holiday parade season and the winning has continued.
“What an honor to win first place at our hometown parade with the theme of White Christmas and all the royalty wearing silver and white. Everyone looked beautiful,” Hale said. “It was a real treat to hear we won second place in the Temple Christmas Parade. We always do our best to represent our great city of Copperas Cove when visiting other neighboring cities. Even though it was extremely cold and windy, the royalty were true professionals with the ladies looking regal in their capes and tuxedos and the young gentlemen in their top hats.”  
The second place Temple parade win earned the Miss Five Hills Scholarship Program $500 in prize money. 
“Both the Copperas Cove White Christmas and Temple’s Magical Tradition of Christmas parade themes showcased our hardworking royalty in a way that was fun, festive and sophisticated,” said Jillian Tobias, mother of Five Hills Junior Ambassador Maddox Tobias. “There are so many details that go into making these ideas come to life and making sure it is easily understandable to the spectators. Seeing smiling faces and hearing comments like, ‘Wow, look at that!’ from those watching definitely solidified we made the right choices and that the time spent to make the themes happen was worth it.”
The Temple parade is the largest televised parade in Texas drawing an estimated 150 entries annually. Young Miss Five Hills Emily Kimball said the Temple parade is one of the best opportunities to represent our city. 
“It’s a great chance to publicize Copperas Cove and really make our community known to our neighboring cities,” Kimball said. “When we won second place, I knew Copperas Cove made an impact and that we really looked our best.”
“I have so much fun dressing up for the parades and helping make all the stuff to go on the float,” Little Miss Five Hills Braelyn Liles said.  
Teen Miss Five Hills Angelica Torres said getting ready for parades is extremely hard work preparing for the themes with different props and the perfect outfits.
“Winning awards for our hard work just show that it was all worth it,” Torres said. “It is always a pleasure representing Copperas Cove and showing other communities how great our town is.”
Miniature Miss Five Hills Haelyn Hendrix enjoys being around other pageant participants and positively representing the City of Copperas Cove in the parades.
“The pageant’s hashtag, #MoreThanABeautyPageant, is displayed throughout the actions that the Five Hills Scholarship Program is involved in,” said Hana Hendrix, Haelyn’s mother. “Participating in events throughout Central Texas is vital in forming relationships with the surrounding communities. Haelyn loves Christmas and likes that the City of Copperas Cove was able to spread the Christmas Spirit for the holidays.”
Benny Boyd of Copperas Cove provides the city float’s towing vehicle and VFW Post 8577 sponsors the float to provide constant refurbishment. 
“We always work hard as a team to make the visions come to life for each parade theme,” Hale said. “The true reward is hearing the crowds ooh and ahh, yelling our city’s name as we travel the parade routes.”