A 70-year-old playwright won Brooklyn’s first all-ages and all-genders beauty pageant! Denise “Mistah” Coles was crowned the winner of the Feb. 27 event in Brooklyn, N.Y.
, per pageant organizers Simone Tetteh and Thomas Tomczak. In an exclusive chat with PEOPLE, Tetteh and Tomczak explained that they were tasked with planning a fundraising event for the Brooklyn Community Kitchen , a soup kitchen that helps feed local residents, and they wanted to plan something that wasn’t just your “standard” fundraiser. When Tomczak suggested a beauty pageant, they instantly knew it would be an all-ages and all-genders event “It was important for us to do something that reflected our community and the culture of the kitchen that we volunteer at — the volunteers as well as the greater Brooklyn area .
We wanted to do something that felt really inclusive and of course really fun,” Tetteh explained. They put out an open call for contestants — including talking about it on the local news podcast 1010Wins — which is ultimately how Coles found out about it. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“She was everything,” Tetteh said when recalling their first meeting with Coles at the show’s first rehearsal. “She got a standing ovation [at the show] and [..
.] I saw some people tearing up.” While speaking to The New York .