Junior FITS pageant a success

The Junior Miss “Fun in the Sun” pageant came to a close yesterday under the big tent in the midst of all of the July 1st festivities when Hailey Clendenning (Energy Fitness Centre) was crowned as its first-ever queen.
The titles of First Princess and Miss Congeniality both were bestowed upon Mandy Barker (Lowey’s Greenhouse), while Sarah Glover-Dittaro (Lakewood Tire Ltd.) glowed as the Second Princess sash and tiara were offered to her.
“It’s a huge shock being crowned Second Princess,” remarked Glover-Dittaro. “We all had our predictions of who was going to win but you never really can be sure.
“And with the secret judges being around you always had to be on your best behaviour,” she laughed, noting that the fact that their identities were secret made it that much harder to predict what the judges were going to do.
But the secret judges deliberated and decided and after announcing their chosen candidate for Jr. Miss “Fun in the Sun” Queen, they could not have made her any more happy.
“It’s always been my dream to have younger kids look up to me as a good role model,” expressed Clendenning. “It makes me feel good [to have won] because it’s what I’ve always wanted.”
When Barker was asked how she felt to scoop up two titles after this event (First Princess and Miss Congeniality which was chosen based on a vote of who the contestants felt was the nicest) she was ecstatic.
“It’s not really describable,” she exclaimed. “I was shocked! I didn’t even know you could win two.”
After being crowned, all three girls were swarmed by crowds of family and friends and flashes from cameras were blinding them everywhere they turned.
All three girls were very impressed with the whole pageant but when all was said and done, they valued the event as an opportunity to meet new friends and to get life experience most of all.
Glover-Dittaro was very impressed with the fact that this pageant encouraged her to meet new people that she never imagined she could meet.
Barker echoed that making the new friends was what really made the whole experience that much more fun.
But to all three winners, this was not all fun and games. Being prepared and more organized is something that all three girls wished that they would have done.
“Be prepared,” stressed Glover-Dittaro. “Don’t think it’s all, ‘I get to go get pictures and flowers and friends.’ You actually have to work hard for it.”
Ever since the inception of this pageant, the 15 contestants had been taking part in a variety of activities such as entertainment night, “Mall Days”, creation of a banner and a float, selling raffle tickets—all to try and raise money and accumulate enough points to win the title.
Top points for the banner went to Clendenning and top points for the float was a three-way tie with Clendenning, Barker, and Tessa Payne all receiving praise. Top points for the final question went to Barker and Charlie Hardwig-Eberspacher.
Chelsea Mosely was honourably mentioned for selling the most Nascar raffle tickets (11 booklets) and Glover-Dittaro was applauded for selling the most magnets after having returned for 50 more after having sold out.
This year’s regular “Fun in the Sun” pageant was cancelled when a limited number of girls had signed up. It was incapable of running with such little support so Dawn Booth, along with a couple of girls in her office, contemplated what they could do instead while drinking their coffee.
“We were thinking we would hate to see the pageant cancelled because if it is done [this year], it was not going to come back. So we thought we’d try a younger age group and we had a phenomenal response,” explained Booth, the organizer of the event.
“I think that with the amount of interest we had this year, it’s probably a definite that it will continue on in future years, so that is great,” she predicted.
Even though the contestants were all much younger, and even though the pageant was rushed to get started and organized, all of the girls managed, coping extraordinarily well with the stress and the demands of running in such a pageant.
As for differences in the pageant because of that age gap, Booth claimed that it was different in some ways but largely remained very similiar.
“The younger girls seem to be a lot more appreciative and they want to get involved in things whereas the older girls—well, some things they are a little too cool for,” Booth explained with a laugh, noting this as the major difference between the regular pageant and this year’s junior event.
Last year’s Miss “Fun in the Sun” Holly Strain acted as emcee for this year’s event and was also one of the secret judges alongside Tracy Booth and Chantelle Spuzak.
She stressed that the whole concept of being a judge was difficult for this event because there were so many girls and many of them were very good candidates for the crown.
She did emphasize though, that the final winners really did deserve it for all of their hard work and their overall attitude towards the events.
Strain was surprised to see it work out so well. She noted that when she ran last year there were only five contestants, so this year with fifteen girls signed up it was just astounding for her.
“It is so great to see that many girls come out,” she enthused.
With such a good turnout, the public can look forward to seeing this event running again. Also, if there is enough support, the regular “Miss Fun in the Sun” will also resume.
All of the winners are very excited to join up with the regular Miss “Fun in the Sun” when they reach the appropriate age.
Because of the amazing experience that they all took part in this year they look forward to getting this opportunity again.
Both Clendenning and Glover-Dittaro remarked that they had been looking forward to running for Miss “Fun in the Sun” since they were little girls, and so now, with all of this experience under their belt and with all of the fun they had over the past several days, they can hardly wait for their time to come.
Many others admitted that they entered in this contest because they thought it would be fun and a great opportunity to meet new people, but after being part of such an amazing experience, many are truly excited to get back into the race again.
With one year over, the next is ready to begin.
Booth said that the committee will be meeting up again soon to hash out what went well and what didn’t and the formulation of next year’s pageant will soon begin.
The organizers of the event and all of those who participated were very impressed with the turnout and are eager to see what will happen next year.
To wrap up this year, Booth wanted to say, “I congratulate all of the girls because they all worked really hard and if we could give the crown to everybody we would.”
Clendenning echoed, “I would just like to congratulate all of the girls because they’ve all been amazing.”