DMS Junior Beta Club has strong state showing

Junior Beta Club members at Demopolis Middle School brought home honors from the state convention in Birmingham, including two first-place awards.

With 83 members attending, the DMS club competed against 7th and 8th grade Beta Club members from around the state at the convention March 18-20.

Local members also earned third place honors, and all those who placed are eligible to attend the national convention in Nashville at the end of June.

Parker Hallmark won first place in math, and Tate Sparkman, third place in science, the first time any DMS student has placed in an academic field at the convention.

“That says a lot about our teachers here,” said club advisor Meggin Mayben. More math and science is being fed into the DMS curricula and is being reflected in the students’ academic achievements.

The four-member team in the poster competition also took first place. Sara Margaret Veres, Abby Hulsey, Shelby Gandy and Anna Kate Golden were given a theme and one hour to design and create a poster.

Sara McVay brought home a third place award for recycled art, and the group banner won third place. Gandy, Veres and Hulsey took ideas submitted by members of the club and created the banner.

Mayben said for the first time the club entered the group talent competition, and 35 of those attending performed a six-minute music and dance program. While they didn’t win, she said she was very proud of the group.