Thursday afternoon, Loralei Godwin and her mother Carrie, along with Chancey Rushing, State Director for Alabama’s Our Little Miss Scholarship Competition, walked into The Selma Times-Journal office while taking a tour of the city.

According to Carrie Godwin, the trio was getting acquainted with the city in preparation for a March 17 preliminary event to be held at Sweet Advantages.

“We so enjoyed our stroll through downtown,” Carrie Godwin said. “Being a first time visitor myself, I was amazed by all of the beautiful historic architecture. Loralei loved getting to know all of the small business owners and shopping along the downtown strip. We felt so welcome and embraced the whole trip. Selma exhibited such true southern hospitality.”

Loralei got involved with OUr Little Miss in 2017 and was crowned Our Little Miss Baby Petite.

She eventually went on to compete in the world pageant and brought home the title of 2017 USA’s Our Little Miss Baby Petite.

Currently, she is the reigning champion in the Alabama’s Livin’ Doll category.

According to Carrie Godwin, the Our Little Miss pageant is different from other contests because it is a “natural” pageant and scholarship program.

“Unfortunately, at this time, the word pageant has such a negative connotation,” Carrie Godwin said. “People tend to picture ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ and our program is about as far from that as you can imagine. Our girls compete naturally and learn to love themselves as they are,and the pretty dress is just a plus. However, I see the biggest benefit to be an outlet to foster growth in and a love of preforming arts. There are so few opportunities for our children to perform in comparison to just a few short years ago, which will eventually lead to a decline in interest for those fields. When the arts suffer the world does as well.”

The Our Little Miss program, of which Carrie Godwin is an alumni, started in 1962 and is coming to Selma for the first time this year.

The girls involved with Our Little Miss are much more than beauty pageant contestants – Carrie Godwin noted that the girls are planning a service project to be carried out in Selma immediately following the March event.

“Our Little Miss functions very differently from many other systems in that we like to promote and foster sisterhood Carrie Godwin said. “Our delegates from Alabama function as a team and we refer to each other as ‘Queen Sisters.’ We truly do become family. Loralei loves any chance she gets to explore a new place, especially when she gets to travel with her queen sisters.”

For more information on Alabama’s Our Little Miss Scholarship Competition, contact Carrie Godwin at alolmmom@gmail.com or call her at 850-516-3441.