Megan with Steve Calahan and Kevin Calahan, Marshall County Emergency Management

Megan with five of the pageant contestants

photos submitted

After hearing about the school shooting in Marshall County, Kentucky, Megan Ski Hollingsworth feared the worst. She was attending MTSU on this date and thought this horrible incident occurred at her alma mater, Marshall County High School in Lewisburg. While reflecting upon this tragedy, she started thinking of how to make schools safer. She came up with the idea to sell tee shirts and also held a beauty pageant to raise money for a school safety program called Peacefully Tennessee. Through Peacefully Tennessee, she was able to earn $2,073 which was donated to Marshall County Emergency Management. These funds have been appropriated to fund a safety program to inform teachers of issues in their classrooms that could end possibly end in tragedy.

Megan plans to make the pageant an annual event in order to continue safety education.

Megan is aware that the majority of school shootings are due to mental illness. She has reached out to school counselors concerning this issue and has placed Care Boxes in schools. Megan realizes that students

will not discuss their problems, such as being bullied, etc., with anyone; but if they write their thoughts and feelings on paper and place this in a Care Box, it could possibly help.

She recently met with the governor’s office to discuss school safety across Tennessee and plans to continue making her way throughout the state with her safety program, Peacefully Tennessee.