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14 • 125TH ANNUAL GRAVETTE DAY • Saturday, August 11, 2018 Looking Back and Moving Forward By Dave Woods DaMayla Cowan is a two- time winner of Gravette Day scholarship pageants. "I won both titles when I was in school," DaMayla said of the Miss Teen Gravette and Miss Gravette pageants. "I learned a lot of self- confidence through it. I was able to walk into an interview and to be totally confident in myself. Being in the workforce now, I have the confidence to talk to anyone." Increasing her own confidence wasn't the only benefit of participating in the pageants. She made fast friends along the way. "I was able to make new friends and to meet other girls through the pageant system," she said. After winning Miss Gravette, she was named Miss Benton County and went on to the Miss Arkansas pageant. "I was also able to go and compete at the Miss Arkansas prelim level for the Miss America Organization and (was) able to help in the community," DeMayla said. The Miss Arkansas pageant is part of the Miss America system. During the Gravette Day festival weekend, teen girls and young women ride in the parade, compete in a personal interview, demonstrate their poise and take the stage to compete for scholarship money and bragging rights. They all hope to become Miss Teen Gravette or Miss Gravette. Both contests can lead all the way to the Miss Teen Arkansas and Miss Arkansas titles. Unlike the beauty pageants of yesteryear, the Gravette Day A confidence builder Gravette Teen, Miss pageants a staple of community celebration Miss Gravette 2017 Isabella Dell Paid for by Gayla Hendren McKenzie for State Representative District 92 Roots to Build a Future and Preserve our Heritage Gravette Memori Gravette Day 35th Gravette Class of 1983 Class Reunion "Large Enough to Serve…. Small Enough to Care" www.marathonmetal.com