Lincoln County Miss Hospitality Rainee Luper is headed to Hattiesburg next week to portray southern elegance in the 67th annual Mississippi Miss Hospitality pageant.

Luper will represent Lincoln County as one of the 27 contestants competing for the Miss Hospitality title on July 22-23 at the historic Saenger Theater in downtown Hattiesburg.

She will spend the week leading up to the pageant at a camp getting to know the other contestants.

“We have a whole camp that week — from the 17th to the 23rd,” Luper said. “We will have rehearsals, go to the zoo one day and have an autograph signing where our families can come visit or people can come see us. We will go on a tour of Hattiesburg and learn about the Saenger Theater. We will just get to know each other that week.”

Luper will participate in five stages of competition before the Mississippi Miss Hospitality is crowned. She will complete a panel interview, six one-on-one interviews, a speech, a commercial with a black dress competition and an evening gown competition.

“My speech is about the hands of Mississippi,” Luper said. “I talk about how (Brookhaven) is kind of like where the hip is placed from Memphis to New Orleans. We’re the central hub of that — the most accessible.”

The interviews with each judge are intended to be more personal, Luper said. The panel questions will be geared more toward tourism and the economics in Mississippi.

“The questions are mainly about Mississippi, but how things that are going on in Mississippi affect the world and the USA,” Luper said.

In preparation for the interviews, Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce program director Katie Nations has set up mock interviews for Luper.

“They’ve been making sure that my answers flow,” Luper said. “Katie has also gotten them (a few previous Miss Hospitality contestants) to come and help me.”

While competing for the Miss Hospitality title, Luper will get to have a little fun, too.

“I am probably looking forward to the costume night the most,” she said. “We get to have a theme party night.”

The most exciting part of the week will be meeting all of the other girls and getting to know them, Luper said.

“A lot of the previous ones (Miss Hospitality contestants) have told me that you stick together with these friends through a lot, that you end up finding one of your best friends,” Luper said. “It’s really neat. I’m excited.”

Luper was selected as Lincoln County Miss Hospitality by a panel of judges who were appointed by the Brookhave-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce.

“I actually didn’t go through the pageant process,” Luper said. “We did an interview with Mrs. Kay (Burton). There were less than five girls. We turned in a really specific application. Since there was less than five this year, she sent them off to judges and the (judges) picked. Then she called me, asked me a few questions and made sure that I was willing to do it.”

As Lincoln County Miss Hospitality, Luper is responsible for attending business openings, ribbon cuttings and events throughout town and promoting Lincoln County’s economic development and tourism programs.

“I become the face of the town,” Luper said. “I have to make sure that everybody knows how friendly you are. That is one big thing. You can never let anybody see you having a bad day or see you angry. You have to be happy all the time and a lot of times that’s hard — to take all the negativity that’s going on around you and turn it into a positive thing. I think that’s something that I’ve had to learn through this, especially in the interview. No matter what they throw at you and no matter how negative the question may be, your answer should always be positive.”

If Luper were to win Mississippi Miss Hospitality, her responsibilities would be the same on a statewide level.

“Any big or small event that is happening in any county or city, I would have to be present for,” Luper said. “Becoming Mississippi Miss Hospitality gives you a really big opportunity to see the state and learn more about it.”

Luper is an honor graduate of Enterprise Attendance Center where she served as president of her class, the Student Council and the Beta Club.  She was also elected Miss EAC and Most Likely to Succeed.

She will attend Copiah-Lincoln Community College in the fall and plans to obtain a degree in communications from The University of Southern Mississippi.  Her goal is to pursue a public relations career in the medical field.

Luper’s interest in public relations sparked after attending a Toys for Tots”donation day at Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson.

“While I was a member of the Beta Club, we delivered toys to the children at Batson hospital,” Luper said. “We stayed about three hours, split up on different floors and hung out with the kids. I think that was what led me to public relations. I didn’t want to be a nurse. I didn’t want to be a doctor, but I wanted to impact people’s lives.”

After Luper expressed her interest in impacting those around her, a teacher suggested she look into hospital public relations.

“At first I didn’t even know what she was talking about,” Luper said. “I did a lot of research and I think public relations is really what I want to do. You’re not just sitting at a desk all day doing paperwork. It’s almost like you’re the face of that company. Everything the media sees is you. I thought running for Miss Hospitality would help me grow as a person by being able to communicate with both sides.”

Luper believes her experience as Miss Hospitality will help her in the future as a communications and public relations professional.

“I think it gives me an opportunity to not only be in the media and have people look at you constantly, but also realizing the background of what goes into things,” Luper said. “Being in this and meeting everybody that has put this pageant on, makes you realize how much it takes to make something work. I think for my career aspect of it, it’s taught me that you have to compromise.”

This year’s Mississippi Miss Hospitality pageant theme, “Destination Hospitality,” showcases that no matter where you travel, you can always come back home to find hospitality and grace in Mississippi. The pageant originally began in 1949 under then-Governor Fielding Wright and the Mississippi Legislature. Since then, the pageant has called the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Starkville and now, Hattiesburg home. Presented by VISITHATTIESBURG™ and the Mississippi Development Authority, in conjunction with Forrest General Hospital, USM and the City of Hattiesburg, the Mississippi Miss Hospitality Pageant offers more than $100,000 in scholarships and prizes to the top finalists.

Tickets to the 2016 Mississippi Miss Hospitality Pageant may be purchased by calling the Saenger Theater Box Office at 601-584-4888, or online at HattiesburgSaenger.com.