New Belikin calendar unveiled
If that 2003 calendar on your wall is looking kind of tattered, don’t worry, help is on the way. News 5’s Patrick Jones drew the short straw last night and his assignment took him across the street to the Bellevue Hotel.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
It was the place every red-blooded Belizean man wanted to be on Wednesday night: the launch of the 2004 Belikin Calendar. And only minutes after they were laid out on the table, the glossy pictures of bikini-clad models were moving like hot Johnnycakes. General Manager of Belize Brewing Company, Hilly Martinez, says the popularity of the calendars has exceeded all expectations.
Hilly Martinez, General Manager, Belize Brewing Company
“Actually we have gotten good response both locally and abroad. It’s amazing the amount of emails we get from Belizeans living abroad and foreigners seeing it on the internet, requesting the calendars. In Belize the demand is so much we don’t have enough. We printed roughly about eight thousand calendars this year. We did two sizes, a big one for the bars and hotels, and the smaller one for people to take at home.”
It’s the fourth edition of the Belikin calendar and as in previous years, the producer, Belize Brewing Company, has assembled a diverse band of beautiful Belizean women to be ambassadors for its products.
Hilly Martinez
“It’s good publicity for Belize Brewing, for the beer, and for the Lighthouse, the Stout, the Premium, for all our products. It’s something that’s always visible for the twelve months of the year, it’s always there.”
And the models we spoke with say it’s an experience like none they have had before.
Nataliah Cardona, May Model
“It was different. It was fun. Actually I tried it because I wanted to do something different and it was really nice.”
Odelia Caliz, September Model
“It was fun. It’s like, it’s something I feel really good about it and I think the pictures are nice and so it like, it’s just like WOW!”
Avelyna Matus, February Model
“I say be confident in yourself and show your beauty. I mean if you have it, I don’t see why not flaunt it.”
And flaunt it they did. Set against various backdrops in San Pedro, Placencia, Caye Caulker, and the Mountain Pin Ridge photographers Jeremy Spooner and Richard Holder spent three months working with the models to complete the project. Martinez says the women were carefully chosen from different parts of the country to make it truly a national product.
Hilly Martinez
“One of the things we have always tried to do is to have the swim suits as conservative as you possibly can in swim suits. And this year for the first time we have a Belizean who is actually from Taiwan, but she has been in Belize, she has Belizean nationality. We try and use only Belizean girls and we have not repeated any from since we first started four years ago, use any girls more than one year. We have used girls twice in the same year, but we haven’t used any girl more than once.”
For 2004, Avelyna Matus gets the distinction of being repeated twice, February and December. Nataliah Cardona, currently studying abroad, says more Belizean women should consider modelling.
Nataliah Cardona, May Model
“It showcase Belizean beauty and it’s very artistic, and I don’t think its really degrading or anything. And Belize is multi-cultural and it shows all different types of females. And it’s not really stereotypical like in Cosmopolitan you have to be five feet eleven or maybe ninety-eight pounds. And in this you just have to be you. Belizean, hundred percent Belizean.”
Erica Parham, October Model
“It’s a good experience for them. I don’t see it in any way degrading or anything like that. Because some people look at it like that, but I think if you have a beautiful body that you should show it off. That’s the way I believe it should be.”
Patrick Jones for News 5.
Besides the calendars, Belize Brewing Company will also be doing a series of eight posters featuring the models. Photo processing for the calendar was done by Spooner’s Photo lab with design and layout by Bowen and Bowen Limited’s Printshop Department. The calendar was printed in Guatemala. The 2004 Belikin calendar should be posted on News 5’s website before the end of the year.
