By: Isabelle Puente

After an eventful week in the Hub City, the fifth annual Miss Volunteer America pageant came to a close after Miss Texas Volunteer Amanda Higginbotham was crowned Miss Volunteer America 2027, at the Carl Perkins Civic Center, Saturday.

Allison DeMarcus, who founded the pageant in 2022, and serves as the organization’s CEO, took time to catch her breath and reflect on the week that was and the five years that have been.

“It means everything to me … I work on it every single day of my life and put everything into it,” DeMarcus said. “What I love the most about it is seeing a young woman like Lauren Salimbene (Miss Volunteer America 2026) get to the end of her year and have opportunities that take her from where she is and propel them far beyond where she could be.”

The same can be said for DeMarcus – who locals will remember as Allison Alderson – a Jackson native, who graduated from the University School of Jackson.

Following her high school days, she graduated cum laude with a degree in business administration from Rhodes College in Memphis in 1999, where she served as president of the Chi Omega sorority.

The wife of Jay DeMarcus, bassist for the country music band Rascal Flatts, and the mother of two, she won the Wall Street Journal Award for Excellence in Finance as the top finance student in her graduating class.

Fast forward to today, and Demarcus is on the Board of Directors for Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital where she has served as President of the Board of Directors, has chaired an $18M Pediatric Cancer Campaign and most recently served on the Campaign Cabinet for Tennessee’s first Rehabilitation Center.

She has also enjoyed serving as a Board Member for the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center’s Board of Overseers, Board member for the Memorial Foundation on the Grants Committee, chaired the Auction Committee for the Swan Ball and Co-Chairs fundraisers for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital with Jay.

The pageant has become a massive organization that has focused on raising donations, providing scholarships, prioritizing education, showing responsibility, volunteerism and empowerment.

DeMarcus is no stranger to beauty pageants – she was named Miss Tennessee in 1999 – but it’s a tireless work ethic she possesses that make the pageants in Jackson the success they are.

“When I first started working on the pageant, my mom kept asking me, ‘Do you think people will come to Jackson, Tennessee?’ DeMarcus said. “I said, ‘Well if they don’t it’s just gonna be the two of us at the Civic Center.’

“I had no idea what to expect, I went out on a limb with a lot of wonderful friends and supporters here in Jackson along beside me and the people here at the Civic Center, the city workers are incredible people.”

The Miss Volunteer America pageant has become synonymous with Jackson and DeMarcus was awarded with the key to the City by Mayor Scott Conger, Saturday.

This year, the pageant raised $155,800 for St. Jude and assembled birthday bags for children and seniors with The Salvation Army. The pageant also awarded their traditional $50,000 scholarship to the 2027 winner, Amanda Higginbotham.

For more information about the pageant, you can visit their website at https://missvolunteeramerica.net/.

(PHOTO: Allison DeMarcus, who founded the Miss Volunteer America Pageant in 2022, right, with Amanda Higginbotham, Miss Volunteer America 2027)