FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)- Miss America 2017, Savvy Shields, is home.
Fayetteville named Saturday (Oct. 22) "Savvy Saturday" and welcomed the former Miss Arkansas with a homecoming celebration.
"It's good to be home," Shields said. "It's good to thank the people who made me the person I am today."
From a parade up Dickson Street to signs throughout the city, even a reception from the University of Arkansas Chancellor, Miss America's hometown did not hold back.
"Fayetteville is a place that I've always loved, and I always will," Shields said. "It's my home and I can say with a hundred percent confidence that I am the Savvy that I am, I am the Miss America that I am because of the people of Fayetteville. It's special and it's because of the people that I love it so much."
Not only does the state of Arkansas love her, but the entire country is quickly learning how special Shields is.
"She has only been Miss America six weeks," Miss America Organization CEO Sam Haskell said. "I can tell you that we have never received more positive feedback. We get emails, phone calls and letters almost every day from people she's met along the way who have said wow. She is something special and I am so proud of her and so thrilled that she is my Miss America, your Miss America, our Miss America."
As she reflects on her hometown, Savvy said no matter where she goes, the feeling is the same.
"I can go into a place where I know every single person in the room or I go into a room and know no one at all, and I can have the same exact feeling," Shields said. "Everyone is so welcoming and loving and supportive, and I think that speaks volumes of Fayetteville as a city and Arkansas as a state."
Savvy's homecoming began in Little Rock and she will end her visit Sunday (Oct. 23) with a breakfast meet-and-greet with her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, at the University of Arkansas.