VanHook Auto Dent Repair new sponsor for Five Hills Scholarship Pageant

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press 

Vanhook’s Auto Dent Repair is joining the Five Hills Scholarship Pageant as a Division Sponsor, sponsoring the Baby Miss Five Hills Division category.
The owner of Vanhook’s Auto Dent Repair, Nicholas Vanhook, overheard Miniature Mister Five Hills Maddox Tobias and his mother Jillian, talking at a local restaurant about a sponsorship opportunity earlier. He approached Maddox and his mother and expressed his interest in becoming a sponsor himself, through his business. 
Vanhook’s Auto Dent Repair offers paint-less dent repair and has a location in Killeen at 2803 E. Veterans Memorial Blvd. Vanhook has been pulling dents for approximately six years and uses a combination of pushing and pulling the dents to repair the damage to the vehicles. 
“Really, I’m just trying to get the finish of a vehicle back to perfect,” Vanhook said. “I want it to look like you bought it brand new from factory, whether it’s one little door ding, a hailstorm or even sometime big collision damage. I can pull out and get it back to factory looking.”
Vanhook learned his skills in high school through family members who are also in the dent repair business and just kept practicing until he became experienced before he decided to open his own business. 
Vanhook said he wanted to be a sponsor because of the good that the pageant does for children. 
“We’re about to have a child, so having something that has to do with children and getting children a spot where they can do better in their lives is always going to be something important to us, so I thought it would be a good chance to do a sponsorship to try to help out somebody else,” Vanhook said. 
Vanhook requested to be a sponsor specifically for the Baby Miss Division, according to Volunteer Pageant Director Wendy Sledd. 
He said he would definitely consider being a sponsor again in the future. 
“Especially, as we’re going to have a daughter, if she grows up just getting to be around other kids and getting to be involved in something like this would be nice,” Vanhook said. 
Vanhook’s Auto Dent Repair’s motto is “Dent Repair Done Right.” 
When Maddox had the opportunity to try his hand at removing dents, he took that motto to heart. 
Calling himself the “Dent Getter Ridder,” Maddox learned how to mark the dents and then use a special piece that used pressure to remove dents on Saturday morning. 
He was very excited to have the chance to help out that way and said he had so much fun interacting with a sponsor that way. 
Maddox said that it was great how businesses like Vanhook Auto Dent Repair agreed to be a sponsor. 
“It really means a lot because we’ve been going all over town to try to get some sponsorships,” Maddox said. “I’m very happy that they actually wanted to sponsor the pageant.”
Jillian said that Vanhook’s Auto Dent Repair was one the first sponsors that Maddox got for the upcoming pageant. 
“I guess that kind of set us in the right direction,” said Jillian. “That was just really uplifting that somebody in the community would just overhear us and then just step up like that and volunteer, so that was pretty cool.”
Maddox said that being Miniature Mister Five Hills has been very fun, and he is excited for the 2021 Five Hills Scholarship Pageant. 
He said he is feeling kind of bittersweet and will miss all the crafting he and his mom did together for the pageant projects, like his fisherman’s outfit featured at the Upcycled Fashion Show at the Spring Eco Fling this year. 
Maddox earned the Bronze, Silver and Gold Presidential Service Awards for accruing more than 300 service hours during his time as the 2020 Miniature Mister Five Hills. He assisted his fellow titleholders at various events during his reign but also took on the responsibility of maintaining the Free Little Libraries located at the Copperas Cove ISD Pre-K, elementary and junior high campuses schools as well as at the city’s two swimming pools. These Free Little Libraries offer free books for children in the community at any time, day or night, especially outside of school and library operating hours. 
“I promise, they’re never closed,” Maddox said about the little libraries. 
As with the pageant sponsorship, Maddox went to local businesses for help with supplies for the Free Little Libraries. 
“It’s humbling to see how great our community is and how helpful they can be,” Jillian said. 
The next Miniature Mister Five Hills will be crowned along with the other titleholders at the 8th annual Five Hills Scholarship Pageant this Saturday, March 27, held at the Copperas Cove Civic Center. The pageant starts at 1 p.m.