2024 Miss Mississippi Volunteer contestants. (Photo credit: Demarcus Bowser Photography)
The Miss Mississippi Volunteer Scholarship Pageant hosts its fifth-ever pageant week in Tupelo July 3–5. Thirty-nine contestants from around the Hospitality State will gather in the All-America City to celebrate their achievements, receive tens of thousands in scholarship awards, and compete for the titles of Miss Mississippi Volunteer and Miss Mississippi Teen Volunteer 2026.
The Miss Mississippi Volunteer Scholarship Pageant is a non-profit, service-based organization based in Amory and is an official state licensee of the national Miss Volunteer America Pageant, which was founded by Allison DeMarcus, a reality television star and wife of Rascal Flatts band member Jay DeMarcus. The organizations focus on providing women ages 13–26 with educational scholarships and extraordinary opportunities.
The contestants will compete in the phases of private interview, fitness and wellness, talent, and evening gown—each scored at 25% equally. The judges hailing from California, South Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, and New Hampshire will have the difficult task of choosing just two women to be awarded the titles and carry the honor of being state representatives for the upcoming year.
In addition to making various appearances across the state, Miss Mississippi Volunteer serves as the official spokesperson and partner of the Mississippi Highway Patrol’s D.R.I.V.E. campaign, teaching safe driving practices to teens and parents in an effort to reduce the state’s historically-high traffic fatality rates. Over the past three years of the partnership, the titleholders and troopers together have reached more than 26,000 Mississippians through more than 100 presentations at schools in all corners of the state.
The Miss Mississippi Volunteer Scholarship Pageant has also made available more than $350,000 in scholarships in its first four years.
Not only is the Mississippi pageant excited to see who will claim the crowns, but it will also welcome back its own Miss Mississippi Volunteer 2023 and Miss Volunteer America 2024, Hannah Perrigin of Columbus, to emcee the event. Also featured during the show will be Izzy Karns, who was last year’s Teen winner. Karns brought the first Miss Teen Volunteer America crown home to Mississippi in March, winning a $10,000 scholarship.
(Photo credit: Demarcus Bowser Photography)
Lauryl Joyner, Miss Mississippi Volunteer 2025, a Meridian native, recently returned from the national pageant where she placed third-runner up to the title, becoming the fourth Mississippian to place in the top five in four years of the national pageant. She also won a fitness preliminary award, received gold level recognition with the Presidential Volunteer Service Award, received the Salvation Army’s “Doing the Most Good” Scholarship, and was recognized as the national winner of the community service award. During the past eleven months, Joyner made 174 appearances and garnered over 75 hours of service specifically as the statewide ambassador for The Salvation Army.
Izzy and Lauryl have not only served as the Mississippi Highway Patrol’s D.R.I.V.E. ambassadors, but they have also rallied behind the Salvation Army and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—both official partnerships with the national Miss Volunteer America Pageant.
Steve Stockton, Mississippi Volunteer’s Executive Director, spoke of the program. “What began as an opportunity for young women to grow on a personal level and earn scholarship dollars has become an opportunity for lives to be changed,” Stockton said. “The work we’re doing here in our home state and through the national program is designed to provide young women with a launching pad for future success, financial assistance for higher education, and the skills to achieve their personal goals, whatever those may be. From New York Fashion Week to corporate boardrooms, hospitals, and courtrooms, we are proud to see the impact that our contestants and titleholders go on to make.”
Also coming to Tupelo will be sixty young ladies between six and twelve to accompany the contestants throughout the week in an exciting mentorship experience known as the “Honeybee Princess Program.” The families of both contestants and the Honeybee Princesses help generate significant economic impact on the city of Tupelo and local businesses during July Fourth week.
Two preliminary nights of competition begin at 7:00 p.m. on July 3 and 4 at the Tupelo High School Performing Arts Center, with the final crowning competition beginning at 7:00 p.m. on July 5. Live audience and livestream tickets are available for purchase at www.missmississippivolunteer.com.
For more information about Miss Mississippi Volunteer, please contact Director of Media and Public Relations Rachel Bragg at 662.419.2056 or msvolcontact@gmail.com.