Students ‘spellbound’ by multi talented Laura Jones
LOUISA – Laura Jones, the reigning Miss Kentucky, came to see the students of Louisa East Elementary Wednesday morning and she had three things to tell them: eat healthy, exercise regularly and think healthy.
“You have to eat the right things if you want to grow and be strong,” she told the students, who were spellbound by the Kentucky Christian University graduate’s strong speaking skills and charm.
She asked students to give examples of healthy foods and they immediately leapt with answers from fruits to grilled chicken to green beans. She then asked for examples of unhealthy foods and the students ticked off the usual suspects: ice cream, pizza, candy and soda.
She brought 4 students up and had them help her demonstrate exercises as she got the student body to play along. They went through jumping jacks, push-ups, and Miss Jones’ personal favorite: dancing.
Perhaps the most important part of health she reminded the students about, though, was the healthy mind.
“You don’t have to feel bad because someone says something to you about being different. We don’t have to all look the same, wear the same things or anything like that. I want you to know you are beautiful just the way you are,” Jones told the students. “You need to think healthy thoughts and keep your mind sharp and always give your best effort.”
A classically trained violinist, Jones, told the students that she had been playing since she was 8 years old and there was a time when it got tough and she wanted to quit.
“I was 10 or 11 and I was tired of having to practice violin while my friends were outside playing around. My mom told me, ‘Violin is your gift. You can use that to bless people in ways that you might never know.’
“She was right, because years later it provided me a really cool talent to use at the Miss America pageant,” she noted.
Jones will be on the road all year long as she works her way crisscrossing the Commonwealth.
“Then I have to get a big girl job,” she laughed. But some would argue that traveling, speaking to school children and passing out thousands of hugs to kids whose day might not be going that great is a big girl job already.
