‘Abbreviated program’: Even in a pandemic, scholarship winner gets valuable experience

MOSES LAKE — Lauren Tolley said she had certain expectations about the 2020 Distinguished Young Women scholarship program for high school juniors, based on her older sister’s experience.

The participants would take to the stage in April at Moses Lake High School, under the lights and in front of a live audience. Definitely a challenge, but a challenge young women in every previous program had faced.

But it was 2020.

The DYW program did go on, but not in April and not at MLHS. Elizabeth Murrrell, a DYW supporter, offered the use of her yard.

“There we were, doing (the program) on her front deck, in the wind, at the end of June,” Tolley said. “In front of our parents in lawn chairs.”

Tolley was the 2020 winner, and the program, as well as the year that followed, were very different at a time when the COVID-19 outbreak discombobulated everything from businesses to schools to community events.

While the scaled-down program called for flexibility, Tolley said in some ways it was easier than it would’ve been had the contestants been on the MLHS stage.

“It took a lot of the pressure off,” she said.

Not that there wasn’t pressure. Just try walking across a deck in tall shoes, and try to keep a heel from getting caught between the deck boards.

The interview with the judges went on as scheduled, but that was the only thing that went according to plan. The four contestants were required to showcase their talents, but the actual performances were transferred to video. And the rest of the program moved outdoors.

“We had a very abbreviated program,” Tolley said. “But it was still really fun.”

The contestants and the women who put on the pageant all became friends.

“Those relationships are very valuable to me,” she said.

The state DYW program also went on as scheduled – in a way.

“It ended up being completely virtual,” Tolley said.

The contestants still had to meet the DYW program standards, and among other things, that meant a lot of work on her talent presentation. So it was a little strange to watch it as a short video after all the preparation, she said.

The night of the state program was also a little strange, she said, sitting on the couch in Moses Lake, all dressed up, and watching the event on her computer.

She didn’t get to spend as much time with the other contestants as she wanted, she said. But she still made some pretty good friends.

“I was able to build some awesome relationships,” she said.

Normally, the summer and fall would’ve been filled with events, going around the state to community celebrations, to events and meetings around Moses Lake.

“We didn’t do anything at all. Literally nothing,” she said.

Still, her year in the DYW program was a valuable experience.

“The program was really stripped down to the essence of it,” she said.

And the essence is showing young women how to present themselves and show confidence in themselves.

“I did learn how to stand and walk. We all need to stand in a way that shows we are proud of ourselves,” Tolley said.

One of the goals of the program is to teach young women they aren’t required to measure themselves against others, and in fact they shouldn’t. That, too, was a valuable lesson.

“It’s like a daily battle for everybody to not compare themselves to everybody else,” she said.

During the program, she was being evaluated on her performance, and was the only one out there.

Tolley said parts of the program were very challenging, such as coming up with a performance for the talent section. She didn’t think her talents were in the performing arts, she said.

“I had to dig deep to figure out the talent,” she said.

Her last task as 2020 Moses Lake Distinguished Young Woman was to work with the 2021 contestants.

The 2021 pageant was in April, before an audience of family and friends, in person. Tolley said she hopes the 2021 DYW winner, Esther Roeber, and runners-up Rebecca Shaporda and Laurel Knox, have the chance to do some of the things she couldn’t do.

Tolley received about $4,000 in college scholarships, which she said she will use when she attends Brigham Young University in Provo in the fall. She was in the Running Start program, which allowed her to earn an associate degree from Big Bend Community College in addition to her MLHS diploma this year.