Petagaye Stewart is Miss St Mary

Leon Pounall, Gleaner Writer

Confidence, beauty and charisma manifested themselves through the eight contestants in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's Miss St Mary Festival Queen Coronation show at the St Mary Anglican Church Hall on Saturday.

The eight contestants were exposed to training in poise, wardrobe, planning, speech and diction, talent development and various aspects of the traditional folk forms.

The theme, 'Jamaican Women Shaping Our Culture', was definitely vibrant and vivid as entrants sang and dramatised aspects of Jamaica's culture and heritage.

It was a drum roll - St Mary style - with shouts and applause as spectators waited anxiously to see who would win the various prizes.

Most Culturally Aware went to Miss Castleton Garden, Petagaye Stewart, whereas Silveretta Bunting walked away with the Best Performance award . The presentation that best depicted vision 2030 was Shavonne White's, who wore the sash Miss Galina Lighthouse and took home a cash prize of $5,000 and a trophy courtesy of The Planning Institute of Jamaica.

The accolade for the Most Congenial Entrant went to two participants - Stewart and Sherry Ann Grizzle.

The top five contestants included Delrose Coburn, Stewart, Nordia Anthwine, Shavonne White and Sherry Ann Grizzle.

tense moment

With the interview segment minutes away, the competition got tense for the top-five contestants. They still managed to keep smiling and showed much composure as they individually answered their questions.

The victor, crowned Miss St Mary Festival Queen was Miss Petagaye Stewart.

Second and third-place winners went to Nordia Antwine and Delrose Coban, respectively.

"Inexplicable! I am happy! I will be doing a lot more work and research in representing my beautiful parish," Stewart said.

"I worked very hard, I really wanted to win, I enjoyed being a part of the competition, I really learnt a lot from the professional training," remarked a smiling Antwine.

Stewart will go on to compete in the National Festival Queen competition, scheduled for July 16.