On Monday, Oct. 11, Kaitlin O’Neill, the reigning Miss South Dakota, visited with the students at Woonsocket School. She started with speaking to the seventh through 12th grade students for about 40 minutes, and then had a second session for about the same length with the students in Pre-K through sixth grade.

When Miss O’Neill was a child, she started struggling with her body image and self-confidence, which took her down a dark path of eating disorders and depression. She hit a peak of destruction when she was 16 years old and her parents were getting divorced. She was so distressed, she considered suicide. She made it through with the help and support of her friends, but she didn’t really get serious help and start to heal until she went to college at Minnesota State University-Mankato. It was there where she found a group of people who could relate to what she was going through and would eventually help her get the counseling and help she needed to start to heal and see herself in a positive way again.

…Read on and see an additional picture in this week’s issue of the Sanborn Weekly Journal!