John W. Pace has been championing causes and fundraising since grade school, but has honed his natural skills in the workplace and community to everyone’s benefit.

He retired from the state of Mississippi in 2013 and moved south to Hattiesburg to be near his daughter Brianna, then a student at Jones County Jr. College, now at the University of Southern Mississippi.

While working for the state, John started a continuous series of fundraising activities for various causes that continue to this day, 31 consecutive years.

His first event in this series, March 2, 1989, was an American Cancer Society Jail-N-Bail in Meridian. He gives that single event credit for changing his life and putting him on the path of volunteerism and service to others.

In the early 1990s, he was named Lauderdale County’s Outstanding Young Man and the Meridian Moose Lodge’s International Rookie of the Year. As the founder of the state’s largest Southern Gospel Promotions company, he spent 15 years promoting concerts to benefit various charities, including the Baptist Children’s Village and Sunnybrook Children’s Home.

From 2000-2011, he volunteered with the Mississippi Association for Healthcare Quality, working alongside future Mississippi First Lady Deborah Bryant. Under his leadership, MsAHQ rocketed from the bottom of the Nation to the top, earning back to back Silver Awards for State Associations.

After a dying friend challenged him to get involved more with cancer causes, he lent his talents as an artist to paint various canvases that were donated and auctioned by Relay for Life and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Once he retired from state service, his volunteer work increased over two years where he co-founded the annual MHP Batson Toy Drive and collected and sent dozens of cases of personal items to service members at forward operating bases in Afghanistan.

These works lead directly his receiving Mississippi’s highest honor for volunteerism, the Governor’s Initiative for Volunteer Excellence (GIVE) Award in 2014, presented to him by Governor Phil and First Lady Deborah Bryant.

Approaching 30 consecutive years of volunteer fundraising, John was presented with the President’s Call to Service Lifetime Achievement Award (Point of Light) by President Obama in 2016.

In 2018, he became a double recipient of this prestigious award when President Trump recognized his work specific to the armed forces, veterans, and their families. Since coming to the Pine Belt in 2014, Pace has held over 100 fundraising events across south Mississippi, including founding the annual Star-Spangled Celebration, a show designed to recognize and honor our military and veterans and raise funds for local veteran’s causes. His vetting for these Presidential commendations validated over 14,000 hours of volunteer work, raising nearly $7 million for over 250 charitable causes.

Pace now takes on his biggest and most important task yet as we enter 2020, he will be working with Vitalant (formerly United Blood Services) to help save lives by recruiting blood donors across south, central, and east Mississippi and west Alabama.

Our Little Miss pageant

Oakleigh Michele Davis, 4, competed in the World’s Our Little Miss pageant held in Baton Rouge, La. She competed against 34 contestants ranging from ages 3-6 and won the title of “World’s Universal Beauty 3-6.”

Oakleigh will travel all over the world including the Cayman Islands this year as she reigns representing her title. Oakleigh is the daughter of Jacob and Brittany Davis. She attends Dreams Come True Daycare and will start kindergarten this fall at Southeast. 

Our Little Miss Scholarship Pageant is a natural beauty pageant and is actually the very first natural pageant that started in 1962. 

Our Little Miss rewards kids with scholarship money, and of course crown banner trophy and a robe that is worn for a year representing their home states. As a queen, these girls do community service work, volunteer time helping at many functions and representing their title throughout their state and all over the world. 

Knights of Columbus Council 802 

The Knights of Columbus Council 802 in Meridian recently donated over 90 coats to Care Lodge domestic violence shelter for distribution to their clients. Participating were Sara Smith, Care Lodge Community Coordinator and Knights members Wade Saucier, William Nix, John Harwell, and Maurice Richardson. The Knights of Columbus is an international Catholic Men’s fraternal order.