By Lacie Hall
star@elberton.com
and Rose Scoggins
rscoggins@elberton.com
The Elbert County Middle School (ECMS) Beta Club brought home a national champion after upcoming eighth-grader Jaukeem Fortson was named the winner of the performing arts solo, duo and trio category during the National Beta Club Convention June 23 through 26 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Fortson was one of 56 contestants from across the nation in the category that included duo and trio acts along with other solo artists.
During the preliminary round, all contestants had two minutes to perform in front of a panel of four judges. Following Fortson’s performance of “Rise Up” by Andrea Day, three of the four judges gave him a perfect score, placing him in the Top 3 contestants.
The Top 3 contestants then performed at the official opening session of the convention in front of a different panel of judges and the crowd of over 10,000 attendees.
Fortson received a standing ovation following his performance, and a rush of kids, including whole Beta Clubs, from all over the room ran to greet him and asked for pictures, ECMS Beta Club sponsor Angela Scoggins said.
“It took him 26 minutes to get back to his seat. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Scoggins said.
After Fortson was named the national winner, Scoggins said the crowd roared in celebration, and that a video uploaded to the club’s Facebook page of his performance has been shared over 110 times.
“Wanna know why I pour my heart and soul into Beta!? Moments like this right here,” Paige Cook, a Beta Club sponsor from Kentucky, said in a shared Facebook post of Fortson’s performance. “He isn’t in my club, not even from Kentucky, but man the pride that I felt watching him do his thing on stage is a feeling I never want to forget…Keeping doing your thing Jaukeem Fortson! The black and gold is behind you 100 percent!”
Scoggins said Cook’s message is just one she’s received following Fortson’s performance.
“I’ve lost count of how many sponsors have messaged us on our social media talking about how they’ve never felt like that in a performance before,” Scoggins said. “As a matter of fact there is a group of five sponsors from Kentucky driving down later this month so they can go to his church on Sunday to hear him sing.”
Fortson has his own Youtube and Tik Tok channel where he posts videos of him singing and even goes live on Facebook every Sunday night.
“He sings all the time…God has really given him a talent and has anointed him,” Scoggins said.
Along with Fortson’s national champion win, the club brought home two other Top 10 awards as the club scrapbook won sixth place in the portfolio category and the club’s project proposal won 10th place.
Kennedy Ray, Maiya Alcalde and Alyssa Brown competed in the project proposal category as they submitted the club’s annual Halloween ‘Trunk or Treat’ idea.
The club competed in a total of 13 categories this year after placing at the Georgia Beta Club Convention in the fall and were 19 of over 8,000 Junior Beta Club Members competing during this year’s convention. Scoggins said the large crowd of students created “stiff” competition for this year’s national convention.
Students who competed include:
• Kennedy Ray – apparel design and trading pin;
• Kennedy Ray and Maiya Alcalde – serving learning;
• Maiya Alcalde – recycled art;
• Cooper West – woodworking;
• Jurnee Porter – speech;
• Adrian Jenkins – seventh grade math and leadership ambassador;
• Cooper West, Sequoia Singleton, Marley Geyer and Harrison Ray – lead outside the box;
• Tristan McCall, Kel’Nazah Hamm, Avery Newman, Peyton Roach, Hadley Marunich and Chloe David – collaborative connection.
• Along with attending the convention, the Beta Club also had the opportunity to visit the original Kentucky Fried Chicken, the Louisville Slugger Museum, the Muhammad Ali museum and the Louisville Bell.
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Prior to the junior convention, a group of five Elbert County Comprehensive High School students competed in the senior convention in Louisville.
Callie Moss and Alex Bennett competed in the visual arts category as Moss submitted handmade jewerly and Bennett submitted a robot sculpture.
Moss and Bennett joined Jude Sanders, Brody Howell and Broughton Smith to compete in the living literature category with their recreation of a scene from the book “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls.