Citizenship, love, and compassion: The Smith Family

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The Smith Family really knows how to give back to the community while instilling in their children a true sense of citizenship, love and compassion. It’s a win-win situation for all involved. Last year, their daughter won the Baby Miss Striped Bass Festival crown. “When many people think of pageants, they think of stuck up little girls," said Tiera Smith. "That’s not the case at all.” When Emersyn Smith was crowned Baby Miss 2017, the family decided to use Emersyn’s crown as a way to serve the community. The family decided on a Christmas project that would target new moms and others in need. In an effort to reach out to community members, Smith made a Facebook page for Emersyn entitled "Princess Punkie." People could now follow Emersyn, and this provided a simple way to provide direction to those who wanted to help with donations for Christmas bag items. Items were collected until the end of December. These donations provided 118 bags that included shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, chap stick, a hair bow, Kleenex, note pad and ink pen and hand sanitizer. Bags were dropped off New Year’s Eve at the hospital in Manning to be distributed to new moms and other community members as needed. The Smiths plan to start another donation drive soon that is earmarked for the local children’s hospital, the women’s shelter and the homeless shelter.  Emersyn looks forward to handing over her title this spring in hopes the next family will also do something for the community Big brother Kegan also has an interest in giving back to the community. He has always had a special place in his heart for cancer patients. Both his great-grandmother and his grandmother are cancer survivors. He decided to start growing his hair out at the age of seven to donate to a child in need. He cut his hair this past fall, almost 2 years later, to donate and he now has plans to start a pen pal program with various children’s hospitals.