SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­san­dral@ya­hoo.com

The T&T Plus World is a new T&T-based pageant launched less than a year ago by its na­tion­al di­rec­tor, for­mer Ms Plus In­ter­con­ti­nen­tal Hu­man­i­tar­i­an Am­bas­sador for 2019 in the Miss World Pageant, Ad­i­na Pol­lard-Si­mon. Two queens—a youth, ti­tled Miss Plus World Trinidad and To­ba­go, and an adult, Ms In­ter­con­ti­nen­tal T&T—are crowned and ad­vanced to an in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nal com­pe­ti­tion.

At the in­au­gur­al queen com­pe­ti­tion on No­vem­ber 27 of last year, Miss Plus World T&T, Mekeila Miller and Ms Plus In­ter­con­ti­nen­tal T&T, Cara Sam­lals­ingh, were sashed.

Ac­claimed styl­ist, artis­tic di­rec­tor and pro­duc­tion de­sign­er, Richard Young, was chief judge.

Pol­lard-Si­mon stressed that the com­pe­ti­tion from its con­cep­tion, is “not your tra­di­tion­al beau­ty pageant, but as the brand of the pageant elu­ci­dates, it caters to the beau­ty of full-fig­ured that goes be­yond coun­te­nance, but rungs of fit­ness, self-es­teem, eti­quette and in­tel­lec­tu­al beau­ty, and while a key prepa­ra­tion as­pect are some rig­or­ous ex­er­cise dis­ci­plines, it’s not about weight-loss, but a health-im­prove­ment jour­ney.”

On Jan­u­ary 29, Miller and Sam­lals­ingh were fi­nal­ly be­stowed their of­fi­cial ti­tle of Queen, fol­low­ing their crown­ing at a for­mal, safe-zoned cer­e­mo­ny at the St Joseph Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

In his re­marks, Young said, “I think it’s won­der­ful for fuller-fig­ured women to start, if they haven’t be­fore, feel­ing that there is a space for them, and that they are not seen as be­ing pe­riph­er­al. They’re main-stream, more so, as di­ver­si­ty and in­clu­siv­i­ty are the or­der of the day…” and promised to con­tin­ue work­ing with Pol­lard-Si­mon as he knows her pur­pose and pas­sion are sol­id.

Stand­ing out among the many no­ta­bles who were recog­nised was Ak­il Thomas “aka The Beast”—the pageant’s fit­ness, health and din­ing eti­quette coach, who whipped the del­e­gates in­to ap­prov­ing­ly-men­tal, phys­i­cal and health form.

Dur­ing his ad­dress, he stat­ed that in gen­er­al, he re­alis­es the plus-sized tend to feel alien­at­ed, and as a form of mo­ti­va­tion, he tells them to nev­er let their size pre­vent them from achiev­ing their dreams, which he said he saw ma­te­ri­alise dur­ing one of his fit­ness-ready tasks with the del­e­gates—the trek to the Pines up Chan­cel­lor Hill. He ob­served hes­i­tan­cy and fear trans­formed in­to con­fi­dence, de­ter­mi­na­tion and suc­cess.

Among their very in­sight­ful, in­spir­ing and ap­pre­cia­tive in­au­gur­al re­marks as Queen, Miller and Sam­lals­ingh thanked every­one who helped them.

Miller al­so stat­ed that she al­ways had a dream of be­com­ing an am­bas­sador for T&T long be­fore en­ter­ing the com­pe­ti­tion. “I al­ways want­ed to spread what T&T has to of­fer, so I thank God that pageantry was the door, and can­not wait to see what next the fu­ture holds, but I know threw God, great things are in the way.”

Sam­lals­ingh laud­ed the suc­cess of her first-ever fundrais­er—Char­i­ty Fundrais­er—held on Jan­u­ary 28, and spe­cial­ly ac­knowl­edged her “pageant sis­ters.” She quipped that her “feet had hurt bad­ly, but it was a re­al ho­n­our look­ing at how many lives I can ac­tu­al­ly touch.” Part pro­ceeds go to the RWB Aqua Stars Swim Club.

She dug at “The Beast”, ref­er­enc­ing the Pines. “I’m asth­mat­ic, but I had to show him my re­silience and self-mo­ti­va­tion that I can sur­vive it. I told my­self, I’m not to fall short! He can­not see me weak be­cause I had some­thing to prove, not to my­self, but to the beast,” arous­ing laugh­ter from the guests.

Her oth­er bit of mo­ti­va­tion she will be tak­ing to the world be­fore, dur­ing and af­ter the fi­nals is: “Every­one strug­gles at some time, and not nec­es­sar­i­ly try­ing to make it to the Pines, but in every­day life. If you fall short, put God first in every­thing that you do. He will al­ways be in the midst to bless you. So hold strain! Hold strong! And as pageant mom, Ad­i­na Pol­lard-Si­mon ad­vo­cates: ‘ed­u­cate, mo­ti­vate and smile’.”

Sam­lals­ingh thanked her hair and wardrobe artist, Ty­ron Kerr of Kerr and Mar­celle De­signs.

The queens said that they are look­ing for­ward with pride to rep­re­sent T&T in the fi­nal leg of the com­pe­ti­tion in Hous­ton, Texas. They de­part on March 8, where Miller will vie for Miss Plus World In­ter­na­tion­al, and, Sam­lals­ingh, Ms Plus In­ter­con­ti­nen­tal Hu­man­i­tar­i­an Am­bas­sador and Ms Plus In­ter­con­ti­nen­tal In­ter­na­tion­al, but can win on­ly one of the ti­tles.

Pol­lard-Si­mon thanked Richard Young, Don­na Sam­lals­ingh, Cafe Rus­tique, One Coin Deal Shak­er, Ac­tive Re­hab, Es­sen­tial Look Nails & Beau­ty Sa­lon, Gayelle The Caribbean, Calm Zone Mas­sage Ther­a­py, Kai Cre­ations (To­ba­go), Bold Vol­ume and Hair by Anais, Jil­lian John, Off the Grid Fit­ness, Ak­il Thomas, An­nette Williams, La­Toya Paul, Nyrene and Mas­sai Fa­bi­en, Gayelle the Chan­nel, and all oth­ers who con­tributed.