Hooks’ Katelyn McElroy uses platform to bring community together through kindness
By Kenny Mitchell
A 6th grade student at Hooks Junior High has made it her mission this year to make the world a better place with simple acts of kindness.
Katelyn McElroy was crowned earlier this year as Young Miss Hooks and she has decided to use her platform as a member of the Miss Hooks court to help her community and bring it together by simply being kind.
Katelyn says, “When I became Young Miss Hooks, I wanted to do something to help people by spreading kindness. I want to bring our community together by helping each other.”
And Katelyn will kick off the effort in earnest in August when school returns, with a series of themed months that will run through next March when she hands her crown to the next Young Miss Hooks.
In August, Hooks Hearts will focus its attention on school staff of all kinds with plans to include teachers, cafeteria workers and many others. Katelyn will get the community involved by asking Hooks residents to offer kind words for Hooks ISD staff and then she will take those comments and place them on some kind of keepsake that can be given to those staffers at the end of the month.
After August, McElroy plans to include a different group each month to include senior citizens, first responders, neighbors down the streets of Hooks and various other groups to be focused each month through March, with each month labeled with its own heart theme.
Katelyn told the West Bowie Post this week that she is inspired to do things like Hooks Hearts by those she loves most-her family. The family includes mom and dad, Rashad and Hali McElroy and Katelyn’s big sister, Kadence. Rashad works at Red River Army Depot and Hali is an account manager for a marketing firm.
Katelyn notes, “My family inspires me most. They taught me to always be kind, especially my sister.”
Katelyn’s sister Kadence is a 16-year-old junior at Hooks High School who was herself Young Miss Hooks in 2022, the same year Katelyn was Little Miss Hooks. The two joined together that year as they served on the court to hold a school supplies drive to help fellow students and families, with all of the supplies and funds donated going to help students across all of the campuses at Hooks ISD.
While this year’s Young Miss Hooks is going into the 6th grade, she does have plans for the future and hopes to one day be an orthodontist.
Mom Hali says of her daughter, “She has been involved in pageants for several years and It is always her decision and her initiative to do something other than just wear a crown and to actually do something for people while she serves. From a young age she has always been about serving other people and showing kindness, and she finds ways to do that all on her own. As an 11-year-old she prefers to help other people always and use her pageant titles as a way to show kindness, and that impresses me. It has always been just who she is. We are really proud of her.”
Comments