Curves' helps Jr. Miss program

By ELAINE SANDMAN

Staff Writer

Throughout her own high school years, Curves' owner Tiffany Little was very involved with the Bonners Ferry Jr. Miss program. She won the Fitness Category and was one of two Jr. Miss Alternates.

When Little purchased her Curves franchise and started seeing young women still in high school exercising in her establishment, she remembered her participation in the event.

Little recalled how supportive the local community and businesses were, and how they had encouraged the Jr. Miss contestants who worked so hard to fulfill the competition requirements.

Because of those memories, Little decided to discuss an idea of how to support the program this year with Jr. Miss Chairperson Shelly Hoisington.

Little's idea was for her local Curves franchise to sponsor a yard sale to help raise funds for the Jr. Miss Fitness Award category.

Hoisington shared the idea with Jr. Miss State Program Director Wendy Woods, who thought it was a great idea, and said she wished more of the Curves businesses would get involved with the program.

With the first, of what LIttle hopes to become an annual event, now in the past, Curves helped Jr. Miss contestants raise $. Cash donations as well as money received from the donated yard sale items were accepted at the sale. Jr. Miss contestants who assisted at the sale included Kristina Turpin and Amanda Hittle.

A self pronounced yard sale fanatic Casey Gross, saw the Jr. Miss Yard Sale sign on Friday evening and was the first customer Saturday morning.

The Jr. Miss Program is unusual in its method of sponsorship as it has no large corporate sponsors; depending on individuals and individual businesses for their support. According to Hoisington, the Jr. Miss program in Bonners Ferry provides the largest scholarship awards in the state of Idaho due to the dedication and financial support of local individuals and businesses. The local Jr. Miss program is set for April 21, 2007.