Walmart showing pageant support

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove Walmart has given hundreds of dollars in support of the work that the Five Hills Scholarship Pageant does and continues to do this year.

From providing grants for community service projects to providing a laptop to the newly crowned Five Hills Ambassador last year and this year, Walmart has shown they are here to support the community.  

The Copperas Cove Walmart provided a $250 grant to Ms. Five Hills Ashley Coombs for her inaugural Multicultural Festival held at Ogletree Gap last September and a $500 grant for the annual Howl-O-Ween Puppy Pawlooza last October as well as a $250 grant for the Mommy/Daddy and Me Sweetheart Tea held in February which benefitted Senior Ms. Five Hills Robin Spencer’s platform of literacy and the Copperas Cove Public Library’s summer reading program.

For the past two years, Walmart has also provided a laptop to the Five Hills Ambassador, who is the royalty selected among the 17 titleholders from the previous year that gets to continue as a titleholder for a second year. The laptop will be useful for the Ambassador as they put in over 250 appearances and more than 5,000 hours as a member of the Five Hills royalty.

Walmart and the Five Hills royalty have also partnered up for the annual Stuff the Bus event, which provides school supplies to students in need.

Co-manager Amy Young said that Walmart partners with organizations like the Five Hills Scholarship Pageant because they want to benefit the community and have the community grow.

Partnering with the pageant is an investment in the community but also in the future, because the participants give back to the community through their projects and earn scholarships for their education, she added.

Young said that when she attends the different events hosted by members of the Five Hills Royalty, she sees how the community comes together as one. The Multicultural Festival was one of the events where she really saw this, as people from all nationalities came together to share their cultures.

Coombs said she was appreciative of the grant from Walmart for the inaugural Multicultural Festival. The money raised at the festival went towards Communities in Schools to help fund scholarships to cover fees from extracurricular activities for those who need assistance.

“It meant a lot to me because I’ve taught dance for 18 years, and I see how important it is for kids to be involved in things that are not necessarily always in school, and they find their passions kind of outside of school,” Coombs said. “You know, not everybody’s going to be a scientist or an author or things like that, they’re going to be artists.”

The money from Walmart helped offset the expenses that come with hosting an event in its inaugural year and went towards the purchase of the different flags as well as decorations and thank you cards for the vendors, Coombs added.

Coombs also praised Walmart’s overall partnership with the Five Hills Pageant, beyond the grants and the laptop for the Ambassador, but also the momentum that Walmart puts forth in helping.

“It really kind of keeps us going because it’s not just us that’s doing things, you know,” Coombs said. “Having the support of a big corporation like Walmart, it’s really awesome.”