Carnival groups hold pageant to raise funds

Carnival is coming in September and as usual, money is scarce. Today Ann-Marie visited a group of imaginative fundraisers who are offering some family entertainment and looking for your support.

Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting

Seven little girls between the ages of six and eight years old compete for the title of Little Miss Southside at St. Mary’s Hall at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The contestants are Ashley Lucas, Metrece usher, Tyisha Courtenay, Leandra McCauley, Shenell Spence, Keenya Humes and Hana Geban.

Marsha Smith, Co-ordinator, Little Miss Southside

“They will be doing swimsuit, sportswear and eveningwear. The reason for that is because talent would take a lot of money and the parents don’t have. So we thank that parents who support and help their children in supporting my pageant and getting them ready for the pageant tomorrow.”

But Little Miss Southside is not just your regular beauty pageant. It’s a fundraising venture and Smith decided to raise money for her senior carnival band the old fashioned way.

Marsha Smith

“I decided to work hard. All these years I wasn’t planning on bringing out a carnival group. Other senior band members been telling me that carnival is like ninety thousand for a senior band, or fifty thousand and I was think that was problems and headache, but I will try and work with it.”

“Money is short in Belize, people are bawling. We don’t have sponsors. Some people try and chuck in a little, but the little that I get help with I try to put it to use to raise more on what I have.”

Smith is hoping to raise over twenty-five thousand dollars from a series of fundraising ventures for the upcoming carnival road march. Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.

Tickets for Little Miss Southside are on sale at three dollars for children and five for adults at Record Shack and at the door. Show time is sixty-thirty.