Announcing our 2020 Tennessee Outstanding Junior — Jennifer Thomas Woods

This weekend would have been our 115th TSDAR State Conference in Franklin. Unfortunately we have had to postpone that conference until August, and with it we have postponed the announcement of several large and important awards. However, with Congress just around the corner one award could not wait – the announcement of the Tennessee State Outstanding Junior. This is one of the things I look forward to every year, and I just could not let this year go by without giving the announcement so type of fanfare. It seemed fitting that on Friday night, what would have been our opening night banquet, we hosted our very first (and hopefully only) virtual naming of a Tennessee OJ. I was thrilled to see how many ladies donned on their evening gowns and found crowns to wear to bring a bit of fun to our announcement party. Many of the attendees had been former Tennessee OJ winners themselves, and we were pleased to also be joined by the NSDAR Junior Membership National Chair JeanEllen Melton, and National Vice Chair of the Contest, Melissa Wetzel, both former NSDAR National Outstanding Juniors.

Our Junior Membership State Vice Chair for the Outstanding Junior Contest, Diana Anderson and I worked together to secretly create the event as we were the only two in the state that actually knew that State Junior Membership Chair Jennifer Thomas Woods had won. With a little help from family member Meegan Burton, we arranged to have Jennifer’s father waiting outside with flowers (yellow roses for the 19th Amendment), her state OJ pin, and her OJ sash. Based on her reaction, I am pretty sure we surprised her with the announcement that she was the winner.

Jennifer Leigh Thomas Woods is a lady who has been recognized by her community and area of professional training as being exceptional. Beginning in the C.A.R. then moving on to the DAR, she has held multiple chapter offices, state and committee chairmanships.  She has paged on State and National levels and been a voting Delegate during Continental Congress.  

I was glad that during the evening we were also able to acknowledge the hard work of our chapter Outstanding Juniors as well. All of these women are the future of our chapter, state and national societies and I am so very proud of the work they have accomplished in their chapters and communities. Chapter winners are listed in the chart below:

In Service,

Cecile