Twenty-four-year-old Omolora Wilson, representing St Elizabeth, copped the title of the 39th Miss Jamaica Festival Queen at the grand coronation held at National Indoor Sports Centre in St Andrew on Saturday. In a post-pageant interview, Wilson — who hails from the community of New Market in the parish — said that much of her reign will be used to continue assisting residents of St Elizabeth who were badly affected by Hurricane Beryl. “I have already been using my platform.
I have a GoFundMe that has raised over US$3,000 to give back to the community of St Elizabeth, and so I want to use my platform to push it more, so that I can get more contributions, and not just contributions financially, but even through helping hands. Once I can get more contributions for St Elizabeth — not just in Jamaica, but in the Diaspora. As Miss Jamaica Festival Queen I will achieve great things,” she told the Jamaica Observer.
Shonnoya Houston of Manchester copped second place, while Daindra Harrison of Kingston and St Andrew was second runner-up. In the meantime, Wilson, who is also the outgoing guild president at The University of the West Indies, Mona, said that she plans to aid in national development, particularly among youth. “I really want to push cultural awareness, not just in tertiary institutions, but as early as early childhood institutions.
I also want to give back through community involvement by educating children in early childhood and primary schools about sign language, but also a cultural aspect of it. They learn to sign a little Miss Lou, and so on. It gets them to understand that our culture is not just limited to a certain set of people; it’s for all.
They get to understand that we’re not just one set of Jamaican people; we’re diverse and there’s a reason we say, ‘Out of Many, One People’,” she added..
