Educator takes Miss Hanover Festival Queen crown

The task to select the 13 Festival Queens at the parish level started last Saturday with the staging of the Miss Hanover Festival Queen Coronation at Rusea’s High School in Lucea.

It proved to be the perfect platform for educator, Sornia Samuels, to parade her skills, as she wooed the crowd and the judges to walk away with three sectional prizes and the title of Miss Hanover Festival Queen 2024, and the opportunity to represent the parish at the national finals.

Wearing the sash Miss JDA Shipping and Construction, Samuels quickly emerged as one of the clear front-runners. The writing was on the wall after the sectional prizes were announced, with Samuels copping three of six on offer – Best Performer, Most Culturally Aware and Most Active in the Community.

Briana Johnson, Miss Deveena’s Final Touch Beauty Palace, was the first runner-up and Natalia Evans, Miss Maryland CDC, the second runner-up.

Reflecting on her victory, Samuels, an early childhood educator at Orange Bay Preparatory and Kindergarten School, shared that the win held deep personal significance.

“I started out nervous and then something just clicked and I became really confident. I was backstage after my talent piece and had a little talk with myself, reminding Sornia to remember her purpose. I was inspired to enter the competition because of my body type. I wanted females and males out there who are plus-sized to know they can do anything they set their mind to,” Samuels shared.

As she begins her preparation for the National Finals, Samuels is grateful for the opportunity given by the organisers of the event, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), and has vowed “to make Hanover very proud”.

The show opened with the contestants performing a folk dance choreographed by Shaurna Miller, culture agent and teacher at Green Island High School. This segued into the introduction of the nine finalists, all elegantly dressed to depict African queens, followed by the talent section of the competition.

WINNING PERFORMANCE

The contestants entertained with performances in dance, music, dub poetry and dramatic presentations. Samuels’ award-winning performance was executed through the use of dub poetry with an empowering female rally cry titled Woman Caan Cry Cree.

The contestants later dazzled in evening wear, after which the field was whittled down to five – Samuels, Johnson, Evans, Abbriel Nicholson (Miss Tan Tan Sweet Bite) and Khaliya Trench (Miss FrenzforLife).

In addition to Samuels, the other sectional prize winners were Fadian Gordon, Most Congenial; Briana Johnson, Most Poised; and Abbriel Nicholson, Most Popular on Social Media.

Samuels walked away with a cash prize of $150,000, a trophy and a slew of gift baskets and other prizes.

The 12 remaining parishes are scheduled to crown their queens by the end of June ahead of the Grand National Coronation on August 3, in Kingston.

The theme of the competition this year is ‘The Jamaican Woman: Creativity Beyond Boundaries’.