Evanston resident Deon Lopez wants to use beauty to solve problems in the Caribbean.
The first Miss Illinois Caribbean Scholarship Pageant, to be held in Chicago in September, will accept its final delegate applications this Saturday. Lopez, who is from Jamaica, said she decided to launch the pageant after hurricanes devastated Haiti and Grenada last summer.
“Grenada was hit, but the rest of the world would not understand the economic impact of the hurricane,” she said.
“Out of that came the idea that if we could get more people knowledgeable about the Caribbean and speaking about the Caribbean, we could draw more attention to the issues facing the Caribbean,” Lopez said.
The Miss Illinois Caribbean competition is scheduled to be held at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago. The contestants will compete in categories including evening wear, island costume and talent, according to the pageant’s Web site.
The pageant queen will win $1,000, a round-trip ticket to a Caribbean island, a 4-night stay at a Jamaican resort and a year-long modeling contract.
Miss Illinois Caribbean will follow the same international pageant guidelines as Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, Lopez said. This will make it easier for the contestants to compete in other pageants later, she said.
On Tuesday, Lopez had received eight applications, representing eight of the 34 Caribbean island nations.
Chantale Stephens, a University of Chicago senior whose mother is from British Guyana, said she applied to celebrate her heritage and to help unite Caribbeans in Illinois.
“I have been to other states, and some of them have a stronger-knit Caribbean community,” she said. “Many are first-generation Americans . . . and this forces them to look within themselves, at their roots and bonds and recognize their communities.”
Stephens, 21, is also vice president of the University of Chicago’s Minority Women’s Association and the director of a campus dance group. She said she often wears Caribbean clothes, bangles and necklaces.
Rana Good, president of Northwestern’s CaribNation student group, said she had not heard about the pageant. But Good, a Communication junior, said the pageant will address some of the serious needs of the Caribbean community.
“It’s really good to encourage the pursuit of higher education, especially for people who have just come to America and might be of lesser means,” she said.
About 25 NU students participate in CaribNation. Each spring it holds a campus Caribbean festival.
After the pageant casting call ends, the contestants will take etiquette classes to prepare for the pageant, Lopez said. They will also work on platforms that affect minorities in the United States and residents of the Caribbean, Lopez said. The pageant winner will advocate her platform and represent all Caribbean islands for a year.
Stephens, the delegate of British Guyana, said her platform is women’s health and reproductive care.
There are about 250,000 Caribbeans in Illinois, Lopez said, but she added that the number is not exact because many people of Caribbean descent do not specify their backgrounds on census forms.
Beyond combing Illinois for delegates, the organizers also searched for sponsors to cover the pageant, which will cost between $10,000 and $15,000.
The largest sponsor so far is the international ethnic hair and skin care company Ilora L’original Beauty Concepts, Inc., based in South Holland, Ill.
Ilora CEO and president Jimmy Delano said his company will donate about $10,000 in beauty products and stylists, as well as marketing help. Air Jamaica and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts are other sponsors, and Lopez said she is waiting to hear from more corporations.
Although this is the first Miss Illinois Caribbean pageant, Florida and Georgia have similar competitions. There is also an annual Miss Caribbean U.S. contest in Philadelphia.
For Stephens, a Chicago native, this pageant is a chance to highlight local Caribbean identity.
“With any minority group you always have that risk that you might become extinct if you don’t support one another,” she said. “As it is, most Caribbean natives are considered to be black. Within that minority we are another minority.
“It’s important for us to stick together and to do big things within our community,” she said.
For more information, visit www.missillinoiscaribbean.com.
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