Teacher Keisha Fraser delivered a meaningful lesson on April 25, when she won the Miss Linden Town Week 2015 title and crown convincingly, beating out eight other Linden beauties who were seeking the same honour.
“I think my performance was exceptionally better than during the training. I was confident. I was thinking this is what I have to do, so I went ahead and did it. The others did well. Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. Everybody was at the same level of performing at their best,” the elated queen said in an interview with The Scene.
The theme of this year’s pageant was ‘Woman Empowerment is Equality for all’ and Keisha chose as her platform, ‘Women and Their Role in Politics,’ a fitting choice given the current season. For her talent piece, she performed, “This Poem is All Woman,” written by London-based poet Farah Gabdon.
During the Question and Answer segment she was asked ‘What would be your greatest contribution to your community?’ Keisha said her reply was that her greatest contribution would be through her career by educating the children in her community.
And for her flawless performance she also earned the Best Talent and Ms Intelligence awards.
Keisha revealed that her evening gown, designed by Crystal Lam of Fashion Forward, was a black and gold, bridal chiffon and lace gown that extended in a train down the back. Her make-up artist was Setra Oselmo of Sister to Sisters Beauty Salon.
Before she and the other contestants would have perfected their strut, dance and speeches, they underwent some long, intense training at the Lichas Hall. Trainer Shelly Barker and her assistant Tomicka Pellew assisted them with their walk, posture and pronunciation. The contestants practiced their dance routines to the song “Sissy That Walk” by Ru Paul, which was choreographed by Diana Chapman and David Sayl. After a month’s training, working through Mondays to Saturdays they were finally set for the Miss Linden Town Pageant.
“It was very tiring, trying to get everything in place,” Keisha said. “I mean I had everybody helping me but they still wanted my word, so it was extremely tiring since I had school to handle.” For her it was all worthwhile in the end.
Miss Linden Town Week 2015 said something she has learnt that she will take with her for the rest of her life is to never underestimate anyone. A few of the contestants were crowd favourites, she said and so she would advise anyone to, “Go out and be yourself. Being who you are wins everybody and stick to who you are.”
The former New Silvercity Secondary School student is no stranger to pageants since she won the Miss New Silvercity title at the fifth form level. That was five years ago, she said and family and friends have been telling her ever since to enter the Linden Town Week pageant. Her family and friends were very supportive, according to her, especially her best friend, Michon Guillaume, a former 2010 Miss Linden Town Week contestant, who encouraged her to enter the pageant. Her family and friends she says remain supportive now that she has won and are proud of her.
The Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) student enjoys teaching at the Wismar Hill Primary. After returning to school, she said, her pupils seemed more excited about her win than her. She related that a few of them excitedly said, ‘Miss we saw you. You are Miss Linden. You looked beautiful.’
During her leisure time Keisha enjoys reading, art, French and socializing with her friends and family.
During her one year reign, she plans to give back to her community through Vybz Entertainment in whatever way deemed necessary. Keisha said her ultimate goal is to be a headmistress, therefore, once she would have completed her studies at CPCE, she will be looking at furthering her studies at the University of Guyana.
What she would like youngsters to know is that “Anything is possible. Don’t let anyone get you down or stop you. Go for it.”
Miss Linden Town Week 2015 took the time out to acknowledge her sponsors as well as Corporate Linden (a variety of businesses that came together to make the pageant possible). She said she is grateful to God for bringing her thus far and expressed thanks to Chairman for Vybz Entertainment, Devin Sears; Kerilee Bentick, her mentor in speech; Shaundel Cameron; her aunt, Michelle Fraser; mother, Anatasha Lamott and other family and friends.
The Miss Linden Town Week pageant, hosted by Vybz Entertainment is open to young Linden women. The pageant is judged in five categories: intelligence, evening gown, talent, swimwear and finally question and answer. The intelligence segment was held the week before the pageant and was aired Live on Channel 13 in Linden.
The final line up in the 2015 pageant saw Carletta Johnson as first runner-up, Nickita McFarlane second runner-up and Shenell Brown third runner-up. The other contestants were Manouska Vyphuis, Keisha Lewis, Lurlee Stephen, Irie Cadogan and Shellon Massiah.
Keisha was crowned by Miss Linden Town Week 2014 Luela Figuera.
A presentation ceremony for the awarding of prizes won is expected to be held on May 19.
