It was all elegance at the 40th Annual Miss Calendar Girl ended with Annia Jenkins being crowned as the 2008- 2009 Miss Cover Girl and with 12 new ladies for the calendar months.In keeping with the Wizard of Oz theme, the pageant opened with The Wiz’s “Brand New Day.” The crowd cheered as the 22 cover and calendar girl contestants came onstage for the opening number. After the dance they came out one by one to announce where they were from.
Kourtni Mason then came out and gave some history on the Calendar Girl Pageant and its previous winners. A song was then led by vocalist Chandri Morton. The Orchesis Dance Company” came out and performed a number to Ease on Down the Road.”
The daywear portion of the pageant was interesting, with a lot of the contestants wearing similar outfits. A couple of the girls left the crowd wondering. Some in the crowd began booing the contestants.
The Cover Girl candidates came out first, and the calendar contestants followed. When contestant No. 15, Whitney Henry, came out, a wave of Caribbean students stood up and cheered for her.
After announcing the six judges, the next category went as follows. Luckily no one fell. Even though this year all of the contestants had to wear one-piece suits, there were a few girls who were able to use their sense of fashion to their advantage.
Kourtni Mason entertained with one last dance as Miss Cover Girl. Following her were the talents of the competing Covender Girl contestants … I mean the Cover Girl contestants.
Contestant No. 1 presented a monologue that captured the attention of the crowd. Her presence was powerful and demanding. When she finished people gave her a standing ovation.
Although Contestant No. 1 started off with a monologue, everyne knows it’s not a pageant without a plethora of praise dancing. And the audience had to sit through two of them back to back.
Contestant No. 4 added variety to the talents by tap dancing. Contestant No. 5 played an instrument and had the crowd singing along.
A small intermission was taken to present a slideshow of photos that had been taken throughout the pageant practices. The pictures showed the girls bonding and getting prepared for the pageant.
Once that finished, the evening gowns came next. One of the best categories of the night, the stage sparkled with bedazzling dresses and crystal studded heels. As the ladies paraded around the stage, some happened to linger longer than others, and there was almost a slip.
Overall the contestants were absolutely beautiful, and all of the Calendar Girl contestants did well on their question and answer portion.
The last performance of the night was by an amazing vocalist, Anthony Cheathem.
Afterward, the girls lined up nervously waiting for the awards and titles to be announced. The months were awarded as follows: August – Kayla Williams, September -Whitney Henry, October – Amyra Chapman, November – Cemia Kahlek, December – Amanda Henderson, January – Keshia Thompson, February – Bryana Brooks, March – Patrice Brown, April – Brittany Edwards, May – Porshe Stillman, June – Tiffany Wells, and July – Shareena Fisher.