Hunter to represent Natchez at conference
Published 12:00am Thursday, February 2, 2006NATCHEZ &8212; Natchez resident Krystal Hunter is feeling a little pressure today.
She&8217;s the Boys & Girls Club of the Miss-Lou&8217;s Youth of the Year, and in turn she&8217;s the local nominee to today&8217;s state competition.
Her club is the host of the annual conference; her sponsor has put in hours of work; it&8217;s in her hometown &8212; sounds stressful.
Hunter is one of 16 finalists &8212; she already made the first cut &8212; from across the state attending the conference this weekend.
At 9 a.m. today she&8217;ll face a panel of judges for a one-on-one interview. By lunch, there will be a winner.
The winner goes on to compete for the national title. Last year&8217;s Mississippi winner, Jarvis McInnis, was later named National Youth of the Year.
&8220;We are both excited,&8221; her mom Ethel Hunter said. &8220;I&8217;m praying she wins it.&8221;
Hunter, 17, has been in the Boys & Girls Club for about three years. She joined merely to have something to do, she said.
&8220;I thought it&8217;d better than sitting at home and doing nothing,&8221; she said.
And it&8217;s turned out to be a lot of fun, she said.
&8220;It&8217;s had a lot of impact on me,&8221; Hunter said. &8220;It taught me to say no to drugs, and I met most of my friends there.&8221;
Now in her senior year at Natchez High, Hunter has an after-school job and can&8217;t visit the club as much, but she goes when she can.
Her days are now spent at Borum Veterinary Clinic, where she&8217;s soaking up what she can from Dr. Tom Borum.
&8220;I clean up after the animals, feed the animals and help with surgeries,&8221; she said. &8220;He tells me all the medicines and things he uses (during surgery).&8221;
Animals &8212; especially horses &8212; have been a part of Hunter&8217;s life since childhood and are the reason she plans to become a veterinarian.
The plan right now is a few years at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, a few more at Alcorn State University and then North Carolina Veterinary Medicine University.
At the Boys & Girls Club she&8217;s worked as teen supreme president and organized cleanup crews for several Adams County areas. She was also part of organizing a party for grandparents&8217; day at a local nursing home.
She&8217;ll be judged on her family background, community service, school involvement, service to her club and life goals.
She is the daughter of Donald Hunter.
