Date: Mar 26, 2007

Contact: Lyn Samuels, Director
director@unitedstatespageant.com

Ms. United States sends support to the troops

Kayla Downs, the reigning Ms United States has started a campaign to send moral support to men and women in the military that are currently deployed. Kayla, a resident of Peoria, Arizona, won the title of Ms United States in July of 2006 in Las Vegas, NV. Since winning the title, she has been committed to letting the Military and Veterans of our country know how much their service is appreciated.

On many of her visits to Military bases and Veterans hospitals, Downs was told by numerous soldiers that had served in Iraq, one of the main things they looked forward to each day was cards, letters and gifts from home. The isolation they felt from being so far away from home was somehow lessened when being remembered with a letter. Many also told Downs that they haven’t heard the simple words of “Thank You” very often either. Downs says that she feels it’s the very least we all can do as American citizens.

The new support program that Downs has pioneered is to set up a pen pal relationship with deployed soldiers. Downs started the program with her pageant sisters during the Ms Arizona United States 2007 competition. Kayla crowned the new Ms Arizona US in March 2007. Instead of the token gift that is standard for exchanging during a pageant, Kayla decided to give something different. She made Dog Tags with a soldiers name engraved on it and then enclosed a card with the military mailing address of the soldier. She just asked each girl to write letters of encouragement to the soldier whose name she was given and to wear the Dog Tag in his/her honor. The ladies loved the idea of being able to do something to help and were thrilled to be able to do something for the military. The response has been overwhelming and Downs stated that she is “thrilled that so many others are wanting to be involved”.

When asked why she chose the Military and Veterans as her platform, Kayla explained that she came from a long line of Military veterans. Her grandfathers had all served, her cousins have served and her brother is currently enlisted in the Air Force and has served in Iraq. But her primary reason was in honor of one of her best friends. Tyler Prewitt was a very close friend of Kayla’s and was killed three years ago in Iraq during a road side bombing. Tyler was very proud of the work he was doing and died defending a country he loved very much.

When asked how she felt about the war in Iraq, her comment was “it doesn’t matter if I think the war is right or wrong, what matters is that we support the young men and women that are risking their lives for our freedom”.