The members of the Dowagiac Rotary club were graced by the presence of royalty on Thursday.

Miss Southwest Michigan Courtney Gayle Knight was the guest program during their weekly lunch meeting. The Hartford-native stressed the importance of family unity during her speech, saying that a supportive home life often ensures success for children later on in life.

“I constantly see all these kids who are struggling,” Knight said. “Whether they’re depressed, or unsuccessful in their classes, or they’re not confident, all these different issues they’re having, if you look at their home life, you’ll see they do not have a strong family behind them.”

As part of her platform for Miss Southwest Michigan, Knight devised a three-step process to forming that tightknit family unit: eating dinner together on daily basis, instilling morals and values in children, and creating open relationships between parents and their kids. Knight drew these ideas from her own family life, which she said is the reason she’s the person she is today.

Her first step, eating dinner together, doesn’t just refer to parents heating up some food for their kids and parking themselves in front of the television. Instead, families should spend at least an hour talking, laughing and sharing advice with one another, to maintain their close bond, Knight said.

“Our dinners sometimes at home can last two hours,” she said. “It’s a great time. We love each other and we want to catch up each other’s days, and what better way to do that than over dinner?”

With today’s hectic work and school schedules, though, coming together at the dinner table isn’t a feasible option every night of the week. Still, families can eat together even outside the home, whether by grabbing some sandwiches and eating on the road or by eating hotdogs in the stands of an athletic event.

“We’re still eating dinner together, even if it’s in the bleachers and there’s 50 people around us,” Knight said. “We still sit together, have that communication and spend that time with one another.”

When it comes to the second step of her plan, parents must find a happy medium between being a strict, authoritarian figure and a relaxed, permissive one, Knight said.

“My parents have given us some great opportunities to be on our own, be free,” she said. “On the other hand, we have some high expectations in our home.”

Her third step, establishing clear lines of communication, is also a challenge for modern families. The average parent only spends 38.5 minutes a week having quality conversation with their child, which Knight said is too little time to establish proper trust.

“My generation is kind of running wild,” she added. “We don’t that structure, we’re not talking to our parents and learning from their mistakes and we’re not having quality communication in general.”

Since being crowned Miss Southwest Michigan, Knight has done several things to promote family unity across the region, including hosting several events back in her hometown of Hartford based around family-based activities. She also partnered with a national organization, The Family Dinner Project, which is also focused on promoting the resurrection of quality family time.

Knight, a 2011 graduate of Hartford High School, recently received her degree from the University of Michigan, at the age of 20. In August, she plans on attending the National University of Health Sciences in St. Petersburg, Florida, to obtain a chiropractic degree.