THE Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) recently re-opened the curtains on the Mini Miss Westmoreland Festival Queen competition after a 10-year hiatus.

And the lucky winner of this year’s crown, Ronique Stewart, has JCDC parish manager, Coretta Spence, to thank as she was instrumental in getting the competition up and running again.

In years gone by the competition was a parish project, but grounded to a halt because of a lack of committed volunteers.

Up to the time of its last staging in 1991, the competition was called the Mini Miss Westmoreland Competition. It was, however, renamed after it was brought under the management of the JCDC. Proceeds from the contest will go towards the Miss Westmoreland Festival Queen contest in which teens and young adults perform.

Young Ronique captured the love of the audience with her rendition of “Anancy and Br’er Tiger”. The piece has brought her luck before, earning her a national gold medal in the JCDC National Performing Arts Competition some years ago.

After she won, the 11 year-old student of Little London Primary School expressed thanks to her teachers and parents who supported her throughout her preparation for the contest.

“I feel fantastic and happy,” she said after the show. “It’s a wonderful feeling.”

The first runner up to the queen was Grade Six student of Unity Primary, Ann-Tisha Brown, while crowd favourite Allaina James of Paradise Preparatory School, was placed third. Allaina won the prize for being the most culturally aware while Ronique Stewart copped prizes in the categories of best personality, best performer and best smile. Tanese Davis was named most congenial.

According to Spence, the competition was designed to showcase the talents of the young girls and to bring out their inner strength, beauty and intelligence. She added that their involvement in the competition will help them to excel in their schoolwork and better equip them with the discipline necessary when they become adults.

Westmoreland is unique because it is the only parish that has a festival queen competition for pre-teens.

And throughout the evening, there was also the sashing of the seven contestants of the Miss Westmoreland Festival Queen Competition. That competition is planned for June 29 at Manning’s School Auditorium where the reigning queen, Stacey Ann Lawrence, will pass on the crown to the new queen.

Stacey Ann was present and executed the task of sashing those who will be vying for the chance to be her successor.