Debutantes Begin Their Journey to the Cotillion

Debutantes are in the making!

Visions In Action and Nana’s House Child Development Center have partnered together to sponsor eight Jasper County young ladies for their first ever Cotillion Ball.

The ball and banquet is planned for August 2, 2025 but the young ladies have been and are in the process of doing, seeing, and experiencing a whole lot of exciting events on the journey there. “The Glimpse of Our Future” journey kicked off with a Mother-Daughter Tea in January 2025 at the Blaque Butterfly. The event provided the young ladies and their families an overview of what would come in the months leading up to the ball.

Jaeda Belcher, Kinsley Dearro, Harley Dennis, Jada Hardwick, Addy Penn, Jordyn Standifer, Amiya Stanley, and Raegan Welch are the first ever Cotillion Ball debutantes. All are Jasper County Middle School youth.

“We believe in the importance of empowering young ladies to realize their dreams and education potential. This debutante experience is intense and rewarding,” remarked co-founder and sponsor Nanette Manning.

“Over the next few months, you will have an opportunity to engage in character-building through affirmation journals, dance lessons, training sessions, financial literacy and problem solving and community service. Your experience involves a commitment of your time, effort and fundraising. All of these will provide bonding activities to positively reinforce self-esteem and the goal for lifelong learning. The culmination event will be a Cotillion Ball to showcase your poise, grace and black excellence.”

The debutante experience will be intense and rewarding, filled with happy memories, and will involve a commitment of their time, effort, and fund raising, the sponsor went on to say. First of all, what is a “Debutante?” The word stems from the French word “débuter” which means to lead off. The debutante tradition, in the U.S., has its roots in England. To keep up with modern times, the themes of etiquette have now expanded to include financial savvy, nutrition, self-esteem, health and wellness, and academic excellence.

The journey thus far has included workshops on chess learning strategies; self defense training in the form of boxing; mathematics strategies; acting lessons; spoken word training; and financial planning with introduction to investing. Etiquette classes covering basic table manners, greeting adults, body language, eye contact, use of dinnerware are upcoming. Also coming are dance lessons for line dances and the father/daughter Waltz.

The young ladies recently completed their first international service project by participating in the “Little Dresses for Africa” charity sewing event. The organization works alongside the natives of various African villages to address their specific needs through water, education and community. Helen Burgess was instrumental in coordinating the sewing project with the debutants. Mrs. Burgess, of Kingstree S.C., supports the charity throughout the year by making 100 dresses to send dress to young girls in Africa. Through Mrs. Burgess partnership/collaboration with Visions In Action the debutantes sewed 17 shirt dresses to contribute to the project.

The young ladies also had a day at the Georgia Supreme Court meeting Supreme Court Justice Hollis. While there the ladies were able to visit the Justice Chambers.

Oh and then there was The Color Purple event held in Eatonton which the young ladies attended and had the opportunity to meet Rebecca Walker, the daughter of The Color Purple author and Eatonton native Alice Walker.

In the span of four months these eight young ladies have experienced so many activities that might not have otherwise been offered to them.