In every community, there are those among us who lead by quiet example. They seldom hold positions of power, nor do they have a title or any official designation that distinguishes them from their neighbors. Yet they are often the ones who, having found their own inspiration, serve to make us better people and a better community. The spark of imagination they ignite through the pursuit of their own dreams, passions and curiosity can spread down the street, through a neighborhood, across a community. Their stories are an inspiration and in the telling of their stories, others may be similarly inspired. In each edition, Progress tells the story of three of the “Inspired People” of our community.

Lana Edwards Pugh

In most sports, when athletes reach their 40s, their careers are all but finished.

Even though she is 43 years old and has been off the barrel racing circuit for the past few years, Lana Pugh isn’t finished with the sport she has competed in since she was 8 years old.

“Some women compete in their 60s, even their 70s,” Pugh said. “I could see myself doing that, too, if I can stay healthy. Lana Pugh isn’t finished just yet.

Lana Pugh has been off the barrel racing circuit for a few years now, but she has no thoughts of retiring from the sport.

“I lost my competition horse a couple of years ago, so I had to look around for a new one,” Pugh says. “I bought a race horse, a little quarter horse thoroughbred mare and I’ve had to train her from scratch. It took a year just to get a good handle on her and this past year, it’s been getting her familiar with pattern barrel race horses run. She’s coming along, though, and I hope to get back to running at least some training classes by the summer. That’s my goal.”

Barrel racing was a natural fit for Pugh, who grew up in rural Clay County.

“There weren’t a lot of neighbors close by, but we always had horses around as far back as I can remember,” Pugh said. “I was an old child, so as a little girl, the horses were my friends. I started riding when I was 7.”

Pugh’ introduction to barrel racing came during one of the frequent visits to relatives living in Houston, which almost always included attending the rodeos held at the Chickasaw County arena.

“I saw a little girl riding in the barrel races and told Daddy that I wanted to do that. When I was 8, I went to a (barrel racing) clinic in the morning and rode in my first competition that evening. I was hooked.”

The clinic was the only real training she ever had. She learned the ropes through competition and the support of her parents..

“None of us knew what we were doing, but we had fun learning,” Pugh said. “From the time I was 8, except for the past couple of years, I’ve been riding somewhere just about every week.”

Pugh took to barrel racing like a duck to water, competing at 4H, state and regional events.

“My folks had a bookcase of baubles, ribbons, trophies I won,” Pugh said. “In the late 90s, I would go to Oklahoma to ride in the big NBRA (National Barrel Racing Association). I got lucky and won the 4D National Championship, which was the biggest event I ever won.”

Pugh moved to Macon after meeting her husband, JJ Pugh, in 2007. Their daughter, Allie, is 13.

“As I got older, especially after Allie was horn, I scaled back on competitions,” Pugh said. “My husband’s a truck driver and I have a job and a daughter so there was no way I was going to be able to compete the way I did before. I still manage to ride at least one day a week and after Allie got older she told me I needed to get back to competing.”

Although Allie likes to ride as a hobby, she has other interests to take up her time.

“I never pushed her to barrel race, because it’s something you really have to put your heart into,” Pugh said. “It just wasn’t her thing and that’s fine.. “But I do think its a great sport for girls and women because it teaches you that you’re not always going to win and that you have to bounce back and not just drag around feeling sorry for yourself. I think it also teaches you a lot as a kid. You learn responsibility very early. Horses take time and attention. It’s not just racing and winning. It’s the kind of stuff you have to do every day. It teaches you discipline.”

Philesa DeSmidt

Each December, many people are moved to participate in toy drives because they can only imagine what it would be like to wake up as a kid on Christmas morning to find nothing under the tree.

Perhaps that’s one of the things that makes the toy drive by Philesa DeSmidt different: She doesn’t have to imagine.

“I grew up without Christmas,” DeSmidt said. “I lost my mom when I was just 8, so it was just my dad and me and my dad didn’t work after mom died. I can remember going to school and my friends would come up to me and tell me what Santa brought them or what they got from their parents. I wasn’t jealous. I was sad. You don’t understand things like that when you are a little kid.”

DeSmidt, who has lived all her life in Caledonia, said she never forgot the memories of those childhood Christmases. There were kids in Caledonia who got very little, if anything, for Christmas. She knew that because she was one of those kids.

The idea to start a toy drive specifically for those kids began to take form when she realized that her experiences as a child weren’t that rare.

“A lot of that started when my son was a Cub Scout,” she said. “I was a Cub Scout mom and I noticed there were kids in our pack that probably didn’t have much of a Christmas. I was a substitute teacher for three years in Caledonia and saw the same things. So I decided to start a toy drive.”

DeSmidt started the Caledonia Toy Drive in 2014 without a lot of help or resources.

“We just put out flyers and asked people to donate whatever they could,” she said. “It’s grown a lot since then.

The 2024 Caledonia Toy Drive was the biggest so far, DeSmidt said, providing toys for 90 kids ages 1 to 16.

Prior to 2024, the Toy Drive had provided toys for 50 to 75 kids each year, DeSmidt estimated.

“I don’t have a firm figure, but we’ve given toys to 500 kids at the least, probably a lot more.”

DeSmidt said one of the unique things about the Caledonia Toy Drive is that it allows parents the dignity of being involved in the process.

“After we’ve received all the toys, we open up something like a little store where the parents can come and shop for the things they think their kids will like,” she said. They know better than anyone what their kids like. I think it’s important that the parents feel like they are a part of this.”

How many toys a child receives is based on a simple equation: The amount of the toys donated divided by the number of children who have been identified by people in the community.

“We also give them stocking stuffers and stuffed animals,” DeSmidt said.

The donations of toys or cash begin the weekend following Christmas and close in mid-December with four drop-off locations in town.

The Caledonia Toy drive is also supported by a couple of events in Caledonia who decided to use their event to solicit toy donations. The Pack 9 Toy Run, a motorcycle event founded by Schatzi Whitehead, joined the toy drive in 2016. Carl Ulmer’s Cruisin’ For Tots, a classic car event, came aboard in 2020.

“That’s been huge for us,” DeSmidt said.

As the toy drive has grown, so have the demands on the mom of two, who works as a civilian employee at Columbus Air Force Base.

“My family knows that beginning the week after Thanksgiving, it’s going to be go, go,go,” said DeSmidt, 42.

She said the drive has turned out to be a family project for her, her husband, Curt, daughter Bre, 22, and son, Lakelan, 17.

“They’ve been a big help,” she said. “And for the past three years, Shauna Scarborough has been tremendous. That’s important because you need a lot of people to toy drive.”

Invariably, when the drive ends each year, the thoughts of her childhood emerge.

“It’s really a blessing for me to be able to help because I know how much it means to the kids,” she said.

Alden Thornhill

Although he may not be a household name in Starkville, Alden Thornhill has had an oversized impact on the town just four years after the 2015 Mississippi State graduate returned to town.

The story of how Thornhill hit upon an idea that would become an overnight sensation and become one of the biggest events in the city is already part of the folklore of Starkville.

In November of 2022, Thornhill said he was trying to think of an event that could be held in the spring to take advantage of the nice weather before MSU students left town for the summer.

Thornhill moved to Louisiana after college. During his time there, he became friends with the person in charge of marketing for the historic New Orleans’ Fairgrounds race, which had a race just for dachshunds. Around the same time, Thornhill got his dachshund puppy, Memphis.

“I got to thinking about shutting down a street and doing something fun,” he said. “I remembered how funny the wiener dog race in New Orleans was and I just knew the students would love it.”

On May 6, 2023, about 20,000 people turned out to see the inaugural Starkville Derby, which raised more than $21,000 for its charity, the Oktibbeha County Humane Society.

Thornhill was stunned by the turnout for the inaugural race, but the 2024 event proved to be an even bigger sensation with an estimated crowd of 60,000 spectators, 200 dachshunds, 64 local sponsors and donors and 75 vendor booths. The second Starkville Derby generated $44,000 for the humane society.

Later that year, the Mississippi Main Street Association recognized the Starkville Derby as the Best Large Event in the state.

Looking back, Thornhill realizes the stars aligned perfectly to create such a successful event.

Upon moving back to Starkville, Thornhill became very active in the community as a board member for the Humane Society, Starkville Area Arts Council and Starkville Community Foundation, as well as a member of Rotary, Starkville Young Professionals and a Partnership ambassador.

The network of community leaders he built, along with the expertise gained in his marketing job, proved indispensable.

“That helped a lot,” he said. “I knew people who were getting things done in the community and I knew how to market events. But really, when something succeeds at this level, it’s a testament to the students, residents, businesses, city officials and the university. Without all of those groups, it might have turned out to be just a small event, something to fill an empty weekend.”

As Thornhill prepares for the 2025 Starkville Derby on May 3, much has changed.

“I’m working in sales with Med Centris, the company I worked for in Louisiana. My sales area is north Mississippi, so I’m traveling all during the week. The only time I have to work on the race is on weekends, but thankfully, we have a good team now. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

He’ll also be devoting time in a different role.

He and his wife, Abby, are expecting their first child, a girl, this spring.

As the founder of the Starkville Derby, Thornhill, 32, can take pride in what it has meant to Starkville.

“I went to school at State and loved it and now it’s home for me, my wife and our future daughter,” he said. “I love the idea of having these kinds of events and working with people who can do things. It’s what makes Starkville special.”

PROFILES BY SLIM SMITH

PHOTOS BY RORY DOYLE