Local queen finds her passion in giving

ASHEBORO — Josie Perdue’s social platform as a contestant for Miss Charlotte was ready made. She has been setting out blessing boxes in Randolph County for several years.

“I was born and raised in Asheboro,” she said in a phone interview from Charlotte, where she’s a sophomore at UNC Charlotte. 

As a student at Southwestern Randolph High School, she ran track all four years, serving as captain her senior year when she went to regionals in the 100 hurdles. She also was a member of the 4-by-100 relay team and did the long jump, high jump and triple jump.

During her senior year, Perdue was student body president, had served on the homecoming court, spent one year as a cheerleader and ran cross country her freshman year.

Since enrolling at UNCC, Perdue has become a member of the dance team that performs at football and basketball games. The team plans to compete in April at the National Dance Alliance at Daytona Beach, Fla.

She is also pledged to Alpha Delta Pi sorority, which is involved in the Ronald McDonald House, cooking, raising money and providing activities for families. Perdue is the community service chair.

In her spare time, Perdue competed in the local pageant, with four crowns awarded. Hers was Miss Charlotte. 

Perdue said her talent was lyrical acrobatic dancing. “The hurdles helped with my dance routine,” she said.

When she was crowned Miss Charlotte, Perdue said, “I was crying but thinking, ‘I need to get it together.’ To represent Charlotte and the title meant so much to me. It’s a huge honor.”

Dancing was just part of the competition, which also included a personal interview and talking onstage. Of equal points was her community service initiative — GIVE, or Get Involved Volunteer Everywhere.

“I’d heard about those little free libraries,” Perdue said, referring to boxes in public areas where people can leave books and take books. “Then I saw another box, a blessing box with food.”

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic when folks couldn’t be in crowds. So Perdue and her family would just ride around town. That’s when she “noticed so many homeless in town. I told my mother, ‘I want to make my own blessing boxes.’ ”

At about that time, Perdue was going to do a service project with the Asheboro/Randolph Chamber of Commerce. She enlisted the help of Asheboro Wesleyan Church on Hoover Street and received help from some Boy Scouts who built the box, which was mounted across the street from the church. Central Wesleyan Church helped to keep the box stocked with food.

To get others involved, Perdue talked to groups in the community and posted on social media. That resulted in blessing boxes in Seagrove, Ramseur and Keaton’s Place on Worth Street in Asheboro. 

When Perdue won the Miss Thomasville pageant in 2022, she had three boxes placed in that city with donations from the community.

At UNCC, Perdue received approval for a box near campus and another downtown.

“The blessing boxes benefit the homeless in Asheboro,” she said. “You find what is best for your own community.”

She gets the word out on Instagram and Facebook to involve others. That’s where GIVE comes in. Perdue said people can be critical since she puts the boxes out but asks others to keep them supplied.

GIVE is now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and encourages people to volunteer their time and resources. That includes stocking the blessing boxes.

“My message is, ‘Yes I do install these boxes to get the community involved, to help support the boxes,’ ” said Perdue, noting that the motto for the boxes is “Take what you need, give what you can.”

But blessing boxes aren’t the end-all for Perdue. She would like to volunteer at women’s shelters to teach fitness classes, taking goody bags to VA hospitals, reading in school classrooms. 

“My goal is to open a resource center for people to come, to help people to succeed in life and get back on their feet.” Such a center could include food, computers, clothes, haircuts, anything that “would be beneficial to establish a foundation for homeless people.”

Perdue said a man came up to her at the blessing box across from Asheboro Wesleyan Church. He said his family wasn’t homeless, that they lived just down the street. But they struggled financially and depended on the food in the box.

“I found a passion in volunteering, to see the joy in people’s faces,” Perdue said. “It’s what I love doing. I want to share with others.”