President Mark Killingsworth presided over today’s meeting. Richard Topp provided the opening prayer. Lucy Sanguinetti led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting was held at the Holiday Inn North and on Zoom.
Joe Bost thanked those who helped with today’s meeting. There were no guests.
Wes Brooks then introduced today’s guest speaker, Jaimee Dorris. Jaimee is Mrs. Mississippi and a television host with 15 years of experience in writing, shooting, hosting, producing and marketing media.
Mrs. Mississippi Jaimee Dorris (left) and Hattiesburg Club President, Mark Killingsworth.
For more on Jaimee, go to https://mscon.tv/
Jaimee participated in her first beauty pageant at the age of 33. She won Mrs. Congeniality and then came back the second year to be crowned as Mrs. Mississippi. She will represent our state at the Mrs. America pageant in March and if she wins there will go on to the Mrs. World competition.
She chose Rotary as her platform for the pageants. She began a Rotary Youth Exchange scholarship entitled Life Without Borders. Rotary Youth Exchange participants must pay $5,000 to participate in the year-long, study abroad. She says many can’t afford that payment, therefore she raises money to help offset some of those costs.
As a Rotary Youth Exchange student, she spent a year in Brazil, a year in India, and a third-year in Siberia. She says her experiences changed her life, as they do for all RYE participants. The program is open to high school students. The students are placed into homes of other Rotarians in the country they visit. Jaime says the program is great because Rotary Districts all across the world work together to provide these experiences.
Jaimee invited Rotarians to get involved in her platform. She is available to speak to groups about her scholarship. Rotarians can get with her to arrange the presentations. She also asked members to consider donating to the scholarship and to spread the word about the Exchange program and the scholarship.
Mark Killingsworth thanked Jaimee for her presentation. He reminded members that the club will support the DuBard School this quarter. He noted that we have sold 25 tee-shirts intending to sell 50. If you don’t want a tee-shirt, he asks that members make a financial contribution to the project.
There being no further business to come before the club, Mark then adjourned the meeting with our motto: “Service Above Self.”