Sexton to be in Mrs. Arkansas Pageant
The Mrs. Arkansas America Pageant will be held July 25 at the Bank of the Ozarks Convention Center in Hot Springs.
Malvern and surrounding areas will be represented at the competition by the reigning Mrs. Hot Spring County, Angela Sexton, whose platform will be informing the public about food insecurity in Arkansas and the annual Summer Cereal Drive Fundraising Event, sponsored by THV11 and the Arkansas Foodbank.
According to a statement by Sexton, “As Mrs. Arkansas, I will serve as a representative for women throughout the state encouraging them to believe in themselves, strive to accomplish their goals, and to never stop pursuing their dreams. I plan to make a difference in the lives of Arkansas children and families by collaborating with local communities to spread awareness about food insecurity and advocate for my platform initiative, the Summer Cereal Drive.”
Sexton wears many hats as a wife, mother, director of Financial Aid at Arkansas State University Three Rivers, owner/producer of Goosehead Insurance: Dallas Sexton Agency, board member for the 2022 Brickfest, and chairwoman of the Miss Brickfest 2022 Pageant, but her role as team captain of the ASUTR and Friends Community Team and the group’s efforts in the Summer Cereal Drive are her passion.
Sexton couldn’t be happier to participate in the Mrs. Arkansas America Pageant because it is the perfect platform to raise awareness about food insecurity in Arkansas. She hopes to encourage people to help the hungry residents of Hot Spring County, and around the state, and the Summer Cereal Drive is a great opportunity for caring individuals to help feed those in need.
“I’m super-excited to be able to put the Summer Cereal Drive on a higher level,” Sexton said. “I’m going to implement a plan to visit as many Arkansas communities as possible talking about food insecurity.”
The pageant will feature an interview, an on-stage question, a bathing suit competition, and an evening gown competition. Sexton has multiple and meaningful reasons for wanting to participate in the Mrs. Arkansas America Pageant.
“Personally, it is because I want to spread awareness about food insecurity and the Summer Cereal Drive, because I’m so passionate about it, that’s the first thing,” Sexton said.
She also wants to show herself that she can handle the pressure of the onstage-question portion of the competition, which ties into her past performance on the pageant stage.
“30 years ago, I was in the Fair Queen Pageant in Montgomery County. It was me and one other girl, I got first runner up,” she said.
Sexton’s competitor in that pageant was given a standard pageant question, which Sexton couldn’t remember exactly, but she recalled that the young woman answered beautifully.
When it was Sexton’s turn to speak, she was asked to tell the judges, ‘What car best describes you, and why?’
“I literally almost died, I had no idea what to say, and you’re on the spot,” Sexton recalled. “And I just looked out into the audience, and I was like, “Hmm…a Corvette, because it’s red.”
Sexton said the answer was met with dead silence from the audience, and maybe a few soft chuckles, she was unable to fully remember—but Sexton will never forget how she felt in that
moment.
“It was so incredibly embarrassing because I had no idea how to answer that question,” she said.
The Mrs. Arkansas Pageant gives Sexton the chance to prove to herself that she has grown since that night, although Sexton’s work as director of financial aid at ASUTR and her commitment to the Summer Cereal Drive are proof to everyone else that Sexton’s effective ability to speak with the public has allowed her to do good things for both the hungry people in Hot Spring County, and the students at ASU Three Rivers.
“Secondly, I need to get up there and perform on the stage and answer that onstage question and make it through interview,” Sexton said. “I want to show that I can do that.”
“You mess up, you learn from it, and then you fix it,” she said.
“I want to show myself that I have grown in the 30 years that I’ve been out,” she said. “And show that I can get on that stage and answer that question with some kind of confidence, and know what I’m talking about, and what I want to say, and how I want to say it.”
“My personal philosophy that I try to stand by, one of them, is ‘She believed she could, so she did,’” she said. “It really struck me to be true when I went from Henderson as just a financial aid counselor to ASU Three Rivers being the director of financial aid, so I mean, that was huge for me,” she said.
Sexton is an Arkansas native who spent her earliest years in Montgomery County, but she has been a Hot Spring County resident since 2002. She received a bachelor’s degree from Henderson State University in 2010, eventually working for the university as a financial aid counselor until becoming director of financial aid at ASU Three Rivers in 2018.
Sexton has been happily married to her husband, Dallas, since 2019. They have four children between them: Haden Short, 24; Rex Short, 22; Aymarie Short, 18; and Austin, 17. Sexton has gone through a slow but sure transition from a full house to an almost empty nest. She has no grandchildren yet, so she and Dallas make the very most of their time together.
“As much time as I can spend with my family, I really do that,” Sexton said. “Me and my husband, we are a team effort, and we do a lot of, like just odd jobs together or stuff around the house together, building fences—i mean, we do just a crazy amount of stuff. We’re moving 24/7.”
Besides being with her family and working around the house with her husband, Sexton enjoys working out in the gym in what little free time she has. Most of her time, especially now, is spent working on the Summer Cereal Drive and upcoming related events.
Sexton said ASU Three Rivers will be hosting the “2022 Cereal Bowl” in the Keith Great Room on campus May 21 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The event will feature a great breakfast gathering with juice, coffee, milk, cereal, a silent auction, and amazing motivational speakers Walt Coleman and Shane Broadway.
“That’s a community event that I would like members of the community, as many as we can, to get in here,” she said.
Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the event or by contacting Sexton. All proceeds will go to the ASUTR and Friends Summer Cereal Drive effort.
Sexton said THV11 and the Arkansas Foodbank will be televising live from the Malvern area Walmart on June 8 from 6:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. to raise awareness and collect donations for the Summer Cereal Drive. The public are encouraged to attend and bring cereal boxes to donate, for the chance to get their face on TV and do a good deed at the same time by helping to feed hungry Arkansans.
It only takes $1 to donate a box of cereal through the Summer Cereal Drive, so monetary donations are welcome, as well. Sexton said all donations collected at the June 8 event stay in Malvern, so this will be a great opportunity to directly impact the community.
Sexton looks forward to meeting people around the community and the state to talk about what food insecurity is and how it affects everyday Arkansans.
“It’s not knowing where your next meal is coming from,” Sexton said. “You might not be starving to death, but you don’t know where your next meal is going to come from. And a lot of the kids in our state, especially in the summer, they don’t know where lunch is gonna come from, or where dinner is gonna come from.”
To help Sexton and the ASUTR and Friends Community Team reach their goal of collecting 10,000 boxes of cereal for the 18th annual Summer Cereal Drive fundraising event, please contact Sexton at 501-332-0298 or asexton@asutr.edu.
For more information on the Mrs. Arkansas America Pageant, visit http://www. mrsarkansas.org/.