The dust is settling on an annual event in Mobile. Every year, 50 of the nation’s best and brightest young women flock to Alabama’s port city to compete in the Distinguished Young Women competition. This year’s winner received a $32,000 college scholarship. But, it’s not the contestants that APR Gulf Coast reporter Mike Dumas is focusing on. His report is on the women who make the event happen.
They’re known as the “Moms.” The group is made up of Mobile area volunteers who spring into action each January. That’s when things start heating up ahead of the June National Finals for the Distinguished Young Women competition.
“From a parenting standpoint, they’re sending off their 18-year-old girls to strangers,” Carole Hegwood said.
She just celebrated her 29th year as a Distinguished Young Women volunteer. It’s also her 20th year as “Head Mom.”
“That’s a lot of trust and faith they’re putting in us,” she said. “Some of us are parents, some of us are teachers, but we know what it’s like to have someone else’s child in your care.”
Hegwood leads the team of teachers, healthcare providers, and other professionals who make sure every one of the 50 representatives has everything she needs during her two-week visit to the Azalea City.
Her team of eight who are divided between “Day Moms” and “Night Moms.”
When the sun goes down each day the state representatives are in Mobile, the contestants head to the homes of their host families. But just about every other minute of their visit, they’re around at least one Mom. That includes visits to Bellingrath Gardens and the USS Battleship Alabama.
And who’s that cheering as a select few of the girls try and eat at least three dozen oysters in a five-minute contest? Hegwood and the other Moms.
“We’re kind of the go-to if they need someone to cut up and laugh with them before they go up on stage, or sitting in the audience just to relax them,” Hegwood said. “If they get homesick, we’re here to talk to them, so we’ve hugged girls, we’ve cried with girls. So we’ve brought them through the two weeks, and by the time they take the stage, we’re like that prideful mom backstage cheering them on and yelling for them.”
Ahead of this year’s competition, we spoke with Celeste Jupiter. Last year, she came to Mobile as the representative for Louisiana. The New Orleans native knew she wouldn't see her family until the preliminaries on Thursday and Friday of Finals week, and as the competition heated up, her nerves started getting the best of her.
“They really are just so good at getting us all together and really providing that family feeling for us,” Jupiter said, “and kind of easing all of our nerves as we get more and more antsy towards the finals. They really are just so great.”
A majority of the time they’re in Mobile, the girls aren’t allowed to carry their purses or cell phones. That’s why each Mom has an organized binder and what’s called a Mom Bag. It’s a kit complete with mints, tissues and everything in-between.
One of Jupiter’s primary Moms last year was Elizabeth Pullen. She joined the Moms as a legacy. Her mother was Head Mom for several years while Pullen was growing up.
“When you’ve grow up around the program, it’s just bigger than life,” Pullen said. “And so when you’re asked to volunteer you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Compassion and empathy are great tools each Mom possesses. But, Pullen said when it comes to interacting with each years’ representative, practical experience counts too.
“That way they know what to expect,” she said. “You know, you get nervous when you don’t know what to expect, and when you’re nervous and you don’t know what to expect, it makes it 10 times worse.”
On Saturday night, while the judges tallied the point totals, the Moms had one final job for this year’s competition. Hegwood said that’s sharing hugs backstage for the one winner and the big group of contestants who came up short.
“And that’s what part of it is,” Hegwood said. “Yes, you’re here for the girls, and what this program stands for, but we’re also here to build relationships and friendships.”