Every year, National Jr. Beta Club has its Georgia state convention in Savannah the week after Thanksgiving.
White County Middle School took 42 members, and brought home nine awards, qualifying students for the national convention.
The convention included both on-site competitions and several virtual submissions, including academic testing, quiz bowl, writing competitions, and others that had to be done before students arrived in Savannah.
On Nov. 30, the club did some sightseeing of Savannah, taking a trolley tour and eating at the Famous Pirate’s House.
That evening, they began their on-site competitions competing in the Solo/Duo/Trio performance where the club had a duo sing “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman.
Dec. 1 was a full day of competing in several events -- visual arts, robotics, marketing, speech, apparel design, banner, songfest, and many more. There were also two general sessions featuring guest speakers and awards presentations.
During the second General Session, the club performed its Songfest performance to over 60 clubs and 3000 people because it placed Top 5.
Songfest is where clubs take a popular song and rewrite the lyrics to a theme Beta Club chooses. WCMS took the song “Roar” by Katy Perry and made it into a song with the “Power of Beta” theme.
WCMS finished third in the Songfest competition.
Other third place awards the club received went to Audrey Whitaker in Digital Art, Kaitlyn Gaddy in Pottery, Weaver Bartlett in 6th Grade Social Studies, Olivia Solmon in 8th Grade Social Studies.
Second place awards went to Lexi Schmidt in 8th Grade Mathematics and Cooper Joiner in Recyclable Art.
First place awards went to Joiner in Jewelry and Harper Murphey in 6th Grade Language Arts.
All those who placed qualify for National Convention 2023, including the members that performed in Songfest. The convention will be held in Louisville, Ky., in June 2023.
Jr. Beta Club Sponsor Jack Fullerton said they are hoping to get sponsorships and donations to help send students to the national convention where they can compete against clubs across the nation.