Miss Y pageant scheduled for Saturday night

Hands down, the Miss Y pageant is one of the most popular events on the Belizean social calendar. This year, on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, the Y.W.C.A. is organizing what it says will be its grandest show to date. Earlier this week News Five’s Kendra Griffith stopped by the Y’s headquarters on St. Thomas Street for a preview of Saturday night’s entertainment.

(Contestants introduce themselves)

Kendra Griffith, Reporting
One by one these seven ladies will take to the stage on Saturday night to compete in the fourteenth annual Ms. Y Pageant. This year the contestants hail from Belize City, Dangriga, Placencia, and Scotland Half Moon.

The women have only been practicing a week, but say they are ready to put on a great show.

Sarita Tillett, Belize City
?I think all of us are ready and all of us are winners, but there can only be one Ms Y.?

Margaret Williams, Belize City
?Presently I am not nervous. I don?t know how I will feel on the stage Saturday night, but definitely I am going to do my best.?

Maude Conorquie, Belize City
?I come to enjoy myself and to make the audience enjoy themselves.?

Hettiemay Moody, Scotland Half Moon
?I?m nervous about that really, but we?ll get there. We noh have tomorrow to practice, but I believe we will get there.?

Kendra Griffith
?And then you?ll be fine come Saturday??

Hettimay Moody
?Mmhm.?

Birdy Francis, Pageant Trainer
?The opening production is like I keep saying, over and over is elegant, sophisticated, a touch of class with just a little zap of sassiness.?

?We have an entrance like the Olympics, so everybody should come to see that, be there early because we?re having an entrance with fifty people.?

The ladies will be judged on their audience welcome, talent, and evening wear. And while they are in it to win it, the women agree that having fun and participating in something positive is their main motivation.

Jean Williams, Belize City
?Always I want to be in this pageant. Not come here to win, just come and enjoy myself and meet peoples because I love them.?

Kendra Griffith
?And have you been having fun??

Jean Williams
?Lots of funs and I hope you all come out there and see us because I?m going to win.?

Kendra Griffith
?Well I mi think you noh come inna it fi win??

Jean Williams
?Well, I say if I win, but if I noh win I still enjoy myself.?

Jane Williams, Dangriga
?I want to win, that?s the reason I am here. To help myself, to show myself, and do something so that I can win something.?

Maude Conorquie, Belize City
?Everybody?s a winner, so any way I play, I satisfied with it. Somebody have to win, so if I win well I win but if I noh win, I still win something, but it?s for pleasure.?

Sarita Tillett, Belize City
?I having a lot of fun and I hope everyone turns up on Saturday night and have fun as well with us. And it also gives us the opportunity to know the other contestants. Some of them we didn?t know before, but now we are all friends.?

Celia Muschamp, Placencia
?Well I like fun and I heard they have it as fundraising for the kids and I love kids. That?s the reason why I get in it.?

The pageant is the Y?s biggest fundraiser and the organisation is asking Belizeans to come out and help them to help others.

Birdy Francis
?The money raised from this pageant is for the early leavers programme, that?s the programme that we have here for the young girls, and a lot them can?t pay the tuition and the Y is really in a deficit, so we are asking everybody to please say we can count on them to come out and support it.?

?This is what keeps us throughout the year. It won?t carry us through to the end, but it helps.?

Giving the Y a helping hand is the comedic duo of Lauren Burgess and Ma Joan Burrell who are back together again for the fourth time to emcee the event.

Ma Joan
?We spontaneous right, a situation comes up and we work with it, right. And we want our audience to enjoy, we don?t want it boring. We want them to enjoy their time. We thank them very much for contributing because buying the ticket and being there is a great contribution.

Lauren Burgess
?I want seh Ma Joan, I want beg everybody out there to come out have a good time and I promise them that they wah have?because yer weh happen, I noh bring one piece this time, I bring three piece.?

Ma Joan
?And you know whenever Lauren start she just—and she have you going, going, going, going, so we know it?s going to be a wonderful time.?

To help draw a crowd, this year there will be gate prize in the form of a trip donated by Caves Branch Adventure Company worth over a thousand dollars.

Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.

The pageant gets underway this Saturday at seven-thirty p.m. at the City Centre. Tickets in advance are twenty dollars reserve, twelve general, and five for children eleven and under; while at the door they’ll cost twenty-five and fifteen dollars respectively.