Nine to compete in June 1 Miss Hanover Festival Queen competition
Contestants for 2024 sashed
EIGHT STUDENTS, including one HEART/NSTA Trust trainee and a practising teacher, were sashed at a ceremony held on the Water Fountain terrace of the Hanover Municipal Corporation building, in Sir Alexander Bustamante Square, Lucea, as the 2024 participants in the Miss Hanover Festival Queen competition.
The competition, organised by the Hanover office of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), had the nine contestants, ranging in ages from 18 to 25 years, from communities across the parish, coming forward in confidence, to represent their respective communities, and with the hope of ultimately representing the parish at the national level of the competition.
The contestants and their sponsoring companies are: Fadian Gordon, 23-year-old student at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College, who will wear the sash of Tano Trucking Services; Marie Ann Jones, 18-year-old student at Montego Bay Community College (MBCC), wearing the sash of Reggae Paradise; Briana Johnson, 21-year-old student at MBCC, sponsored by Deveena’s Final Touch Beauty Palace; Abbriel Nicholson, 18-year-old student at The University of the West Indies Western Jamaica campus, sponsored by Tan Tan Sweet Bite; Dallet Kerr, 18-year-old HEART/ NSTA Trust trainee, sponsored by the Insurance Company of the West Indies; Tonnette Gail Miller, 22-year-old student at University of Technology (UTech), sponsored by LYL Ultrasound Centre; Natalia Evans, 22-year-old student at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College, sponsored by Deputy Mayor of Lucea Andria Dehaney-Grant; Khaliyan Trench, 19-year-old student at UTech, sponsored by FrenzforLife; and Sornia Samuels, 25-year-old teacher at Orange Bay Preparatory School, being sponsored by JDA Shipping and Construction.
According to Shiyan Williams, parish manager at the JCDC Hanover office, the annual JCDC Festival Queen competition is one of that organisation’s most prestigious events. She said that the 2024 staging is being done under the theme, ‘The Jamaican Woman: Creativity Beyond Boundaries’.
“To our contestants, thank you for taking [on] the task to become a cultural ambassador for the parish of Hanover,” she sated, while also expressing appreciation to the many sponsors of the Hanover aspect of the national competition.
Jamar Campbell, founder of JDA Shipping and Construction, and a regular sponsor of the Hanover competition, told The Gleaner that he is very impressed with the 2024 set of participants, adding, “I am pretty sure that one of them will win at the national level this year.”
Dwayne Calvin, of Tano Trucking Services, told The Gleaner that 2024 is his second year of sponsoring an aspect of the competition, noting that based on the product he is seeing, his sponsorship should continue for some time.
“What I have seen thus far is that the 2024 competition seems like it will be one of the best for Hanover, based on the confidence and educational level of the contestants participating,” he said.
He made an appeal for Hanoverians to come out and support the crowning of the Miss Hanover Festival Queen, which is slated to take place on June 1 at the Russea’s High School campus, on Watson Taylor Drive.
“I think any one of these contestants can represent Hanover very well at the national level, and can compete against any of the other parish winners,” he stated.
This is a view shared by Member of Parliament for Hanover Western, Tamika Davis. “I really enjoy this competition more than anything else, because we get to showcase the talents of the young women of the parish, and from what I am seeing this evening I am eagerly looking forward to June 1 [when the winner is chosen],” Davis said.
The reigning Miss Hanover Festival Queen is Tr icia Cunningham.
The Festival Queen competition started in 1962, and following organisational changes, and changes in the areas of focus for the competition, it is now dubbed the Miss Jamaica Festival Queen competition, with all parish winners participating at the national level for an eventual national winner to be crowned.