How Miss Volunteer America became the country's latest national pageant

The era of the Miss Volunteer America Pageant officially began on Wednesday night with the first evening of preliminaries ahead of Saturday’s inaugural crowning.

While the initial announcement of the event came in February of 2020, the evolution of this event can trace its beginnings back to the summer of 2018 when a chain of events set the process in motion to result in the newest national pageant making its debut this week in Jackson.

Here's a look back at the timeline that set up Miss Volunteer America:

• June 2018: The Miss America Organization announces the establishment of a change of direction for its organization that would become known as Miss America 2.0. The emphasis of the organization, according to its leadership, would turn away from visual beauty of its contestants and focus more on empowering the competitors with self-confidence and being able to shine in a number of different ways. Statewide pageants to qualify for Miss America would continue to in their traditional format with the winners competing in the new format at Miss America.

• August 2018: It was two months later when a few members of the leadership organizations for some statewide pageants began to publicly express their disagreement with the change in direction of the organization as well as changing the format of competition after the competition season had already begun. Miss Tennessee stalwarts Tom Hensley and Jimmy Exum called a press conference at the Carl Perkins Civic Center in the Miss Tennessee room to air their grievances. Allison DeMarcus also did interviews with national media organizations about the situation as a public back-and-forth between some of the state leaders and MAO began to play out with national attention.

• December 2018: It was just before Christmas that year after a few weeks of silence from both sides when MAO announced the revocation of state title licenses from a number of state leaders. The revocation had actually happened three months earlier, but it was announced in December. The group that included Hensley, Exum and DeMarcus leading Miss Tennessee was one of them, ending a legal relationship that lasted for multiple decades as Exum and Hensley had each respectively been involved in the event for more than 60 years.

• January 2019: DeMarcus and the rest of the leadership from the former Miss Tennessee organization announced the formation of a new organization that would continue to have beauty pageant competitions in the way fans had grown to enjoy but would also stress the importance of community service. Miss Tennessee Volunteer was born, and it was announced the inaugural pageant would be held in the traditional Miss Tennessee week, the third week of June, at the Carl Perkins Civic Center.

• May 2019: In a move that caught the attention of many pageant fans across the state, Miss Tennessee 2018 Christine Williamson had competed at Miss America the previous fall and completed the duties of Miss Tennessee for the year. Her final tasks were to represent the organization in the West Tennessee Strawberry Festival Parade and sing the national anthem at the festival’s Governor’s Luncheon. Later that evening, Williamson released a statement announcing she was vacating her crown and joining the Miss Tennessee Volunteer organization. Later that month, she would be crowned the inaugural Miss Tennessee Volunteer and would crown the first-ever Miss Tennessee Volunteer Pageant winner.

• June 2019: Miss Tennessee Volunteer holds its first-ever pageant, and Holladay native Kerri Arnold is crowned the winner.

• February 2020: DeMarcus holds a press conference at the Civic Center with local leaders announcing the formation of the Miss Volunteer America Organization that already had more than 30 state organizations ready to send competitors to its pageant in Jackson later that year, scheduled for Labor Day Weekend.

• March 2020: COVID-19 pandemic spreads to the South and Tennessee, and leaders at the national, state and local levels shut down most avenues of gathering. Miss Tennessee Volunteer 2020 would eventually be canceled, and the inaugural national competition would be delayed as well. Leadership would try to have it at least one more time, only for a spike in COVID-19 cases to cause another delay.

• June 2021: At the Miss Tennessee Volunteer Pageant, the leadership announces a new group to lead the state pageant because Demarcus and her mother, Jane Alderson, will be focused on making sure Miss Volunteer America will happen the week of Mother’s Day in 2022, meaning all state winners in the volunteer organization will be aiming for a trip to the Hub City then.

• May 2022: Miss Volunteer America contestants are in Jackson and competing this week with the winner set to be crowned Saturday night.

Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: How Miss Volunteer America became the country's latest national pageant