BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IT WAS a crowd reaction unlike the norm as most persons who attended the Miss East Pearl Cultural Pageant last evening (Sept. 29) were in agreement with the judges in crowning Jolanda Adams the 2012 queen.
Jones, having amassed a total of 364 points, outshone her competitors - Kevina Buchanan, Shakeda Gerald, Sami-Qua Cannonier, Tawanna Collins, although she only snagged one of the four judged segments.
Jones took the Ambassadorial Wear and Introductory Speech segment paying homage to Keith Kyamba Gumbs as the requirement for this segment was to highlight a stalwart in the Newtown community.
First runner-up was Tawanna Collins who only fell 2.5 points behind Jones with 362.5 points.
Collins also walked away with best talent. In this segment she showcased her feelings of distress towards the destruction of the Federation's coral reefs and the environment in the Caribbean.
Through her dance, she displayed the current state of "Mother Earth", encouraging everyone to minimise the damage being done to both the coral reefs and the environment by becoming proactive.
Capturing the other two judged segments was second runner-up Sami-Qua Cannonier with 328 points.
Winning the Community Cultural Wear segment, Cannonier modelled a long white dress displaying the National Flag.
She completed her outfit with a head-piece reflecting the National Coat of Arms depicting her patriotic pride.
She also won the Best Evening Wear with her blue strapless version of the mandatory style that all the contestants wore.
The dress, which was entitled Beauty of the Aquatic Seas, was a strapless gown ruffled from bust to hips and flowed floor length with a split on the left thigh which opened up the skirt of the dress to reveal a tiger print mini skirt.
It also revealed a second layer of the floor length skirt in tiger print. The bust and waist of the dress were adorned with gold trimmings.
The pageant, which was held at Fish Pot Village (Newtown playing field), got off to a relatively late start with the five beauties appearing onstage in their opening number, the Fanfare during which they performed their choreographed dance.
The host for the event was Azilla Clarke. Sideshow acts included performances by the Police Junior Drum Corps and the reigning Miss Haynes Smith Caribbean Talented Teen, Siobhan Phipps.
