By Patience Idegwu
Seattle Medium Intern
Through his love, care, and determination for helping youth, Deacon Henry Vernon Jenkins left an imprint on Washington State. For 25 years, Jenkins, who passed away in June of 2015, and his wife Maxine enabled many young women to develop confidence, poise, talent, leadership, respect, and life skills to excel as an individual through the Talented Teens of Washington State.
In the honor of Jenkins, his family has established the Deacon Henry V. Jenkins Legacy Scholarship for those who served as volunteers for the Talented Teens of Washington State over its 25-year history.
The Jenkins became interested in the Talented Teens when their daughter, Eu-wanda, participated in Hal Jackson’s Talented Teens International (HJTTI), as a California representative. HJTTI is a pageant that not only provides scholarship to many young women, but also promotes intercultural relations, diversity, education and more. After traveling with their daughter to Los Angeles, the Jenkins realized that it was more than a pageant; it was about helping participants become wonderful young women.
“It was a good experience to see all of these Black girls who were working on a talent and were successful in school,” said Maxine Jenkins. “They were so poised and were treated like royalty.”
According to Maxine Jenkins, due to the impact that the pageant had on her daughter and many other girls that participated in the competition, they wanted to give back to the program. Thus, they founded Talented Teens of Washington State in 1986 as an affiliate of the international competition.
Over the course of its history, Talented Teens of Washington left a legacy of love, patience, and a sense of responsibility to the many people who volunteered and participated in the pageant. As a result, the Jenkins’ family wants to keep this legacy alive by providing scholarship funds to those who helped make Talented Teens of Washington a success. The list of eligible recipients includes the contestants, hair dressers, backstage people, emcees, lighting crew, the coaches who helped prepare the contestants for competition, and anyone related to the many volunteers.
As stated by Francis Lofton who volunteered with the program for 16 years, after her daughter Ujima Donalson participated in the Talented Teens, there were even grocery stores and nursing homes that helped the contestants give service to their community. Francis says that the pageant was a labor of love by all of the volunteers. All of these people and their sons, daughters, cousins, nephews, nieces, sisters, brothers, and other relations have the great opportunity of winning this scholarship.
“I saw that Mr. Jenkins was a positive role model for young women,” said Lofton. “He made the girls believe that they can accomplish their dreams and that their community wanted them to accomplish their dreams as well. This made the girls work even harder.”
Just like her mother, Donalson, who was a Talented Teens of Washington pageant queen, felt compelled to help the pageant.
“It wasn’t just about all your great talents,” said Donalson. “It was about the workshops and training before the pageant.”
According to Donalson, contestants were given the ability to learn something more than what they would usually see at an ordinary pageant. It provided opportunities for them to get up and express gratitude and meet a number of community leaders.
For Donalson, her on-going affiliation with the pageant was due to the connection she had to the Jenkins’ family.
“We knew the pageant was not the end of our relationship with the Jenkins because they have been a part of my life since then,” said Donalson. “The beautiful part was that it was not just me. Each one of us girls who had participated in the pageant felt like we were part of their family. Every year that the pageant came around, it was like they had more children. We each had something special with the Jenkins.”
Just like how the Talented Teens of Washington State pageant influenced people like Lofton and Donalson, the scholarship aims to do the same. The inaugural $1,500 Deacon Henry V. Jenkins Legacy Scholarship expresses the generosity of his love. Jenkins’ vision of his community achieving their goals and shining at every single thing God gave them is the main point to the legacy scholarship. It hopes to give confidence to individuals in our community to pursue success.
To request an application packet for the Deacon Henry V. Jenkins Legacy Scholarship, please email HenryJenkinsLegacy@gmail.com. Applications must be postmarked by July 28, 2016. This scholarship is available to all genders and anyone at any stage of their higher education.
