Miss St James Toni-Shea Grey targets literacy
Published:Wednesday | July 3, 2024 | 12:08 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Twenty-four-year-old Toni-Shea Grey, a public relations specialist who hails from the southern community of Mt Carey, will represent the people of St James at the 2024 National Festival Queen Coronation next month as part of the country’s 62nd Independence celebrations in August.
Grey, who also won a sectional prize for Best Performance, had strong competition from the competition’s six other contestants, but emerged the winner at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre in Sam Sharpe Square on Saturday. Her declaration was affirmed with energetic celebrations of vocal cheers and vuvuzelas.
Jada Bullock, a 19-year-old student of Montego Bay High School for Girls, who resides in the community of West Village, was crowned as the second runner-up. While Kimberly Simms, who is also a 19-year-old student at the Montego Bay High School for Girls and who hails from the community of Cornwall Court, took the first runner-up title. Bullock took home the sectional prizes for Most Active in the Community and Most Culturally Aware.
Grey told The Gleaner hours after being crowned that she planned to use her position to put the spotlight on aspects of Jamaican culture.
“From a general standpoint, I want to use this platform to raise and highlight certain cultural issues that we face in our society, that young people may have difficulty grasping,” said Grey.
According to Grey, literacy will be her focus, and she will be seeking to elevate the habit of reading among children up to 12 years old as her parish project.
This initiative, she noted, will be called ‘Read to Achieve’, and noted that many years ago she had embarked on it while attending the Montpellier-based, St Mary’s Preparatory and Kindergarten School.
“Read to Achieve aims to target rural schools in St James to address the issue we face of illiteracy, especially among primary school-age students. For those who as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, would have been left behind; for whatever reason, they were unable to access the resources, or just [from] an unstable family home, many of them are struggling with mental ability, reasoning ability and critical-thinking skills,” she stated.
Since the inception of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission National Festival Queen Competition, St James has won it on two occasions. Eight years ago was the last time that St James won the national crown, doing so with Kyesha Randall in 2016. Before that, Toni-Shae James won the national title in 2003.
For the night’s remaining sectional prizes, Mikala Brown, an 18-year-old student of the Montego Bay High School for Girls, won Most Congenial and Most Poised. Djaunel Lawrence, a 19-year-old student at the Northern Caribbean University, walked away with the sectional prize for Most Popular on Social Media.