Royalty begin work with community service platforms

The theme of the inaugural Miss Five Hills Scholarship Pageant was #MoreThanABeautyPageant and the newly crowned royalty are already planning how they will promote their platforms of service during their year-long reigns.
The titleholders ages 9 and older are required to have charity or cause that they advocate for throughout the year and many of the younger royalty also chose to take on platforms by which their families have been directly affected. 
Pre-Teen Miss Five Hills Emily Kimball will support the humane treatment of animals. 
“I believe that as living creatures, animals should be treated nicely and deserve a family. Seeing animals being abused, mistreated or abandoned is sad and I would like to help find these animals safe and loving homes,” Kimball said. 
Kimball will team up with Five Hills Jr. Ambassador Kaydence Weary this year to plan an execute the 3rd Annual Howl-O-Ween Dog Walk and Costume Contest on Oct. 28 at City Park with all proceeds benefitting the Copperas Cove Animal Control Facility.
Young Miss Five Hills Hayleigh Walker chose teen suicide prevention her platform. 
“In the past, I struggled with suicidal thoughts and actions. The experience I went through left me wanting no teenager to ever feel worthless or even consider taking his or her own life, because I know now that inside everyone, including me, is someone strong and full of potential, to be valued and appreciated,” Walker said.
Kendra Hicks, Teen Miss Five Hills, will spend her year reaching out to her peers who are homeless to ensure they have the resources needed to be successful in school. 
“It is important that our community shows them that we believe they are important and worth helping,” Hicks said. “As a result, they will start to believe in themselves and everything they are capable of. I prefer to think of supporting this platform as my way of shining a light in the futures of students who may otherwise believe there is no solution to their situations.”
Miss Five Hills Melissa Sartwell has chosen supporting military children and because she has been in both of those roles.
“I grew up a military child of a single parent, so sometimes money was tight and being the new kid every few years was hard,” Sartwell said. “I want to work towards alleviating that strain and building up that military community that I grew up with, because it truly does take a village for a military family to thrive.”
Ms. Five Hills Heidi Cortez will promote autism awareness because she has close family and friends who struggle with the spectrum disorder. 
“I have seen their struggles as the child and parent when they have nowhere to turn for support,” Cortez said.  “I plan to help but those support systems in place for both child and parent. I would also love to have a playground to help with their social skills and their sensory play.”
Sr. Ms. Five Hills Hope Ransom is a rape survivor and will spend her reign drawing awareness to sexual assault.
“Rape is the only crime that attacks and very often destroys every component of a person’s right to exist as we know it,” Ransom said. “My passion is to use my experience to educate people on the atrocious occurrences and effects of rape while providing help for victims to regain power and take back control of their lives.”     
The royalty participated in their first parade this past Saturday and have multiple appearances lined up for Memorial Day weekend.