Ari Vail has had seven surgeries and three chronic illnesses. She was taken out of school and homeschooled because of her health. She even has a service dog named Artemis “Moose” who accompanies her almost everywhere.

Vail took dance lessons for ten years, until she had to have surgery on both her feet. Dance is as close as she had ever come to being a “pageant girl.” So when she received a letter from a pageant system, just about a year ago, she was confused and amused at the same time. Her mom thought it was funny, as well.

After giving the letter some thought, Vail decided that it might be a good way to meet people and make friends. So, she entered her first pageant and made some friends. She said, “I didn’t win the first one, naturally. But I got hooked. I know that sounds crazy, but after the first pageant, you just get hooked and want to do more. I found American Royal Beauties. They are not based in Tennessee, and it is a scholarship pageant.

It is community service based. Their motto is ‘Crown To Serve,’ and they want us to serve our communities, the public, do public speaking and help others.”

Vail is Miss Tennessee for American Royal Beauties. She has taken her role quite seriously. She says she loves to fundraise and help multiple charities with her platform, which is why she started “Coffee For A Cause.” She puts together expensive Starbucks baskets and will raffle them off for a charity of her choice. This idea was the perfect fit because she works at Starbucks and loves it.

This past Christmas, Vail raised money to buy necessities for Nashville Rescue and raised over five thousand dollars to buy items such as hygiene products, clothes, school supplies and toys for the families at Nashville Rescue Mission.

“When we got to Nashville Rescue on Christmas, the guys there helped us load the larger donations into a shopping cart to tote inside. We had like 4 or 5 shopping carts loaded full of donations. It was great. We fit it all in my mom’s Volkswagen,” says Vail.

She is very happy that she became involved with the pageant systems. The American Royal Beauties strives to empower women; they teach etiquette and motivate for higher education, as well as teach the importance of giving back. Vail feels that the pageant systems get a bad rep, partially because of pageant-focused reality shows. There may be parents who obsess over the pageants or groom their children to be in the entertainment industry, but they are few and far between. Most of the ladies in the pageant system are just having fun and trying to get help with college and help charities.

Vail wants people to keep the charity focus in mind before snapping to judgement on the pageant systems. There is so much more to it than what people tend to think.

Her mom, Shelly, moved her to Mt. Juliet just over 3 years ago. Ari had just started having medical issues, and Shelly needed to get out of a bad relationship. The move worked out well for the both of them. Ari met some great doctors and got a specialist. Ari says that her mom met a great man and got her “happily ever after.” She describes her mom’s fiancè as “the life of the party.”

Vail plans to major in Business Sustainability and Marketing. She mentions that Dell has a greener initiative where they recycle old computer parts and raise awareness for the environment. She also discussed the Starbucks Greener Apron initiative where they train their employees to be more environmentally friendly in business.

Starbucks has a scholarship fund and will be paying for Vail’s undergraduate degree, as long as she is an employee there.

For Valentine’s Day, Vail put together a basket to raffle and is donating all of the money to help some German Shepherds who were recently rescued from a puppy mill.

Vail has recently decided to start a food bank and is in search of churches and organizations to partner with on the project. She and her mom, Shelly Vail, can be found on Facebook if you or someone you know would like to get involved with the food bank.