Bear with me; I'll try to make this very lovely long story short...
In 2006, my young friend Bessie Winn entered the Miss Black Georgia USA beauty pageant. She had participated in the same event the previous year and placed but didn't win. Highly motivated to win the event in 2006 and knowing that I was a public speaker, she asked me to coach her on the content and delivery of her speaking event. Her platform was preventing child abuse and she was very passionate about it.
I was skeptical that I could do her any good, but of course agreed to coach her the best I could. She had other coaches for wardrobe, hair and a vocal coach who helped strengthen her singing event, and she and I worked on her speech and its delivery in great detail.
The end of the story was that she WON! And when the judges announced her as the winner they said that it was mostly on the strength of her very passionate speech. I couldn't have been prouder of her. Of course I also had my camera on the night of the pageant and caught these images.
Fast forward to 2011, and she is now Bessie A. Winn-Afeku, a wife and a Mom, and is the Founder and Executive Director of The She Is Me Program, a non-profit program that empowers young women.
To God be the Glory!
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