Contestants ready for fun-filled Ms. Y pageant
It’s the grandmother of all pageants in Belize. No, we’re not talking about the Queen of the Bay, but the pageant which features real grandmothers: Ms. Y. And this year, just as in past years, the show is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Here’s a little preview of Friday night’s glamorous evening.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The annual Y.W.C.A. pageant that features contestants sixty years and older has become increasingly popular and a well-attended event.
Sonia Linares, General Secretary, Y.W.C.A.
?One of the things that made the show a success was because it became a family entertainment. Several times we have events in Belize that not the entire family can go to, but this particular show, it?s a show that mothers and grandmothers they really look forward to and it has grown in prestige because of that.?
The pageant dates back to 1993 when the seniors of the Young Women Christian Association decided to do something to raise money for programmes offered at the Y. The pageant specifically funds the Y?s School Leavers Programme that helps young girls get an education. The course is important, but it costs the Y.W.C.A. over two hundred thousand dollars a year to meet its operational expenses.
Sonia Linares
?You know that?s a lot of money and what we have to do at the Y is just try to do quite a bit of fundraisers. Of course we do get grants from the government and various organisations, but we depend on fundraising and the fees from its programme.?
The pageants have always been well supported by the business community. This year, however, that assistance has not been as forthcoming but Linares remains hopeful.
Sonia Linares
?Come and support the Y. I think we are doing a good job, a worthwhile job to the community and we really need the support.?
On Friday, the 2005 Ms. Y Pageant takes place at the Belize City Centre. Six ?Seenagers? between the ages of sixty and sixty-seven years old will be vying for the title.
Judith Baptist, 63 years old
?It?s something I like. I like to be on stage and the children are pushing me to do it; the family supporting me in doing it.?
Hilda Hemsley, 67 years old
?In my younger days I never go up for a pageant, and now my only joy. But I thank God for the health and strength and courage that I have that I could go up and do my best.?
Birdy Francis, Pageant Coordinator
?This year our theme is nostalgia. Since we are having so many problems in the country right now we thought we?d go back to the old times, the more gentler times so that we can make people?s spirit be lifted. So we are trying to place music from way back that might be reminiscent to some of the older people, but the young people can hear them too; real good music.?
Gregoria Petillo, 63 years old
?I like it, and after that I want to be a part of the members right here, because at this age right now we noh have nothing to do. This is the only thing that’s our pleasure right now.?
Adela Straughn, 67 years old
?I feel great because the money that we raise from it will help to contribute to the running of the Y, and the students that go to the school, it will help them also. So it?s a great contribution. I hope that God will bless us and it will be a success.?
Edna Stuart, 60 years old
?I just want to meet strange people and I just want to go for the fun of it.?
Margaret Buckley, 61 years old
?I want to be among good people. I even got the courage to appear front of the audience, to enjoy life and all of that.?
These mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers say they do not see the pageant as a competition, but a great way to get the public support they need to keep the Y.W.C.A. open for both the young, and the not so young. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.
The Ms. Y.W.C.A. pageant gets underway at the Belize City Centre on Friday night at seven-thirty. Tickets are available at the Y or at the door for twenty dollars reserve, twelve dollars general, and five for children.
