Hartsville student shares her story during STAND ceremony
Darlington County School District’s 2018 STAND Award winners gather for a photo following a recognition ceremony at St. John’s Elementary School.
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Recently, 23 students in Darlington County were recognized as the STAND Award winners for their respective schools. The ceremony took place in the Jean Taylor Auditorium at St. John’s Elementary School.
The purpose of the STAND Award is to ‘recognize students who have proven best to exemplify the ideals of taking action each day to be a good citizen at school and in the community by displaying positive character, seeking to improve him or herself in academics and in behavior, encouraging others to take action and live a lifestyle that keeps them drug free’.
Hartsville High School student Mallory Singletary was the speaker for the event.
“I am beyond proud of the students here today who have made an effort in their communities and their schools to make a difference and stand up for what’s right,” Singletary said. “I, as many others here today, have experienced the affects that drugs and alcohol have, not only on the individual battling the addiction but their families as well.”
Born to a mother addicted to drugs, Singletary said that her childhood was far from happy.
“Growing up as a child was no easy task for me as I was exposed to people who abused drugs and alcohol,” Singletary said. “From the time I was born until I was four-years-old, I lived with my birth mother. During this entire time she used drugs and alcohol, which also affected her ability to parent. I cannot remember a single time that she sat down to watch a movie with me, helped me complete a chore or even told me she loved me. She was very abusive to my brother and me, physically, mentally and emotionally…I prayed from a very young age that she would become the mother that God intended her to be.”
Singletary shared that she ended up in foster care and then with her birth father, though neither situation was the loving, protective family that she hoped it would be. At less than ten years old, she tried to commit suicide by taking her father’s pills because she was in such pain, physically and emotionally.
“The very thing that people don’t want to admit about addiction is that not only does it affect the family as it does the addicted but those who are emotionally hurt over it have a tendency to harm themselves,” Singletary said.
After years of moving around place-to-place and family-to-family, Singletary and her brother found a family to love them.
“Within a few months of staying there, we were asked if we wanted to be adopted,” Singletary said. “We came to live with these angels on January 1, 2011 and we were standing in a courtroom finalizing our adoption on March 4, 2014. Mama and Pa chose to obey God and as a result of that, they saved our lives. Instead of being addicted to drugs or alcohol, we were in a stable environment and we were being loving by family for who we were rather than who someone thought we should be.”
Singletary said that she struggled with addiction herself and had many hard years because of her environment as a young child. She said that through her faith in God and her parents, she has been able to continuously work to overcome those struggles and will be graduating from Hartsville High School as a junior.
The 2018 STAND Award winners are:
· Emilee Lloyd, Brockington Elementary Magnet School
· Nevaeh Ham, Brunson-Dargan Elementary School
· Nygeria Hickman, Cain Elementary School
· Rainn Dyce, Carolina Elementary School
· Miriael Lesane, Darlington County Institute of Technology
· Kinsley Benton, Darlington County Intervention School
· Tylek Deberry, Darlington High School
· Angel Johnson, Darlington Middle School
· Elianna Thompson, Hartsville High School
· Reggion Bennett, Hartsville Middle School
· JaLiyah Quillen, Lamar Elementary School
· Diajaih Lee, Lamar High School
· Alexanderia Moore, Mayo High School for Math, Science and Technology
· Annsley Tolar, North Hartsville Elementary School
· Nevan Joyner, Pate Elementary School
· Breanna Mills, Rosenwald Elementary/Middle School
· Jarvis Richardson, Southside Early Childhood Center
· Timothy Joyner, Spaulding Elementary School
· Jayda Grosse, Spaulding Middle School
· Mya Joe, St. John’s Elementary School
· Brayden Rhodes, Thornwell School for the Arts
· Caroline Ard, Washington Street Elementary School
· Emilee Tiller, West Hartsville Elementary School