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The 2021 Distinguished Young Women (DYW) Program for both Butler County’s and Lowndes County’s rising senior girls returns to Greenville’s fabled Ritz Theatre at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29.

However, due the constraints of COVID-19, this year’s program will, as is the case with so many other events taking place during the pandemic, be different.

“Because of the continued high amount of coronavirus cases in our area,  we are currently planning to restrict the audience for our 2020 program to only the immediate family members of our participants,” said Jackie Thompson of the DYW Planning Committee.

“We are looking into doing a live stream of the program on Facebook so many people can watch at home. However, there is also the possibility the situation with COVID will improve enough over the next few weeks that we can allow additional people to attend. We just have to wait until closer to the event and see.”

Currently, there are six young women from the two counties slated to vie for individual category awards and the chance to represent their county in the Capitol City later this year.

Ruth Nimmer, Greenville High School; Ansley Nelson of Georgiana High School; Jess Causey, Fort Dale Academy; Katoria Bowen, Georgiana High School; Katelyn Stinson, Greenville High School and Faith Lane of Lowndes Academy will be participating in the 2021 program, with a team of evaluators scoring the young women in various categories.

These will include the on-stage Talent, Self-Expression and Fitness categories, along with the “Be Your Best Self” Essay Award winner, the Spirit of DYW Award winner and the Scholarship category winner (the latter determined by the participants’ high school GPAs). Scholarship monies are earned along with a plaque for each category, with the overall winner taking home the coveted DYW medallion and the chance to represent her county in the coming year.

“We are very excited about the wonderful group of young ladies representing both our counties, and we do look forward to a busy week of rehearsals and preparation leading up to that final Saturday in the month,” said Thompson of the DYW Committee for Butler County. “We hope that you will be cheering them on, whether at home or in person, as this is a very challenging program that demands the best each girl can give.”

Distinguished Young Women (formerly America’s Junior Miss) is billed as the nation’s oldest and largest scholarship
program for high school girls. DYW places an emphasis on scholarship, leadership and talent at the local, state and national levels, as it combines the offer of practical life skills training with the opportunity to earn valuable college scholarship monies. 

Visit the “Distinguished Young Women of Butler County” and “Distinguished Young Women of Lowndes County” pages on Facebook for more information.