Gayla Paige Brown, a junior at North Greenville University, won the title of Miss Greater Pee Dee 2009 in Hartsville on Oct. 4, 2008. She will be competing in the Miss South Carolina pageant during the week of July 4th this year.
Gayla Paige Brown, who will compete in the Miss South Carolina pageant in July, donates blood every 56 days.And, although receiving the pageant crown was Brown’s proudest moment, she remains humble and gives the glory to God, who is the “only one worthy to wear a crown.”
“Whenever I go into churches to give my testimony, I always take off my crown and put it on a platform to signify Revelation 4:10, where the elders cast their crowns at the feet of Jesus,” Brown said. “This is a verse I live my life according to. No matter what honors or fame I receive here on earth, it is only possible through God and the talents and abilities he gave me.”
Brown’s Christian walk is something she always tries to communicate in pageants. If not always verbally, she tries to represent Christ by how she carries herself onstage and offstage.
Her faith is also where she derives her strength and peace to compete. “Pageants are very stressful, and if you show that stress and worry when you go onstage you’ve already lost the competition,” Brown said. “Before I go onstage, 1 Peter 5:7 is always on my mind, ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (NIV).’?”
Her pageant platform is “The Beat Goes On,” the promotion of blood donation. “I chose this platform because I feel it’s the best way for me to give back to the community,” said Brown.
“It is also something that has impacted my life personally. My grandmother had several hip surgeries in which she received a number of units of blood each time,” said Brown. “She was able to get those by the support of her church and family giving blood in her name. So, on my 17th birthday, all I wanted was to give blood, and I’ve given every 56 days ever since.”
Brown heard about the Miss Greater Pee Dee pageant by competing the year before last, and she always heard “great things” about the local executive directors and the community support. “I knew that the support group would be great to have and that the experience would be wonderful,” she said.
This is not the first pageant she’s been involved in. Brown competed all four years at Pendleton High School’s Miss Landmark Pageant, where she won. She also won Miss Southern 2007, and was second runner-up to Miss North Greenville University 2009.
Her most memorable moment of the Miss Greater Pee Dee pageant was the moment just before she was crowned.?”Being the last one standing there, knowing that my name was going to be called was great, but it wasn’t just about me. I knew that through this, my platform was going to reach so many,” she said.
An elementary education major, Brown has the opportunity to share her platform with surrounding schools from elementary to high school. Although most of the children she will be speaking to will not be old enough to donate blood for some time, she hopes that the children will be able to raise awareness with their parents and relatives and encourage them to give blood.
She also hopes the message she gives them will impact them enough so that when they are old enough they will donate blood on a regular basis.
When not competing in pageants, Brown stays involved in North Greenville’s campus life. She is a featured baton twirler for the marching band, and she serves as a residence assistant.
Former Courier intern Keisha Tinsley contributed to this story.