“I’m excited at the return of the Little Miss St. Martin Pageant in 2024. It will be an honor to work with the young ladies and their parents,” said Nzinga Lake, the pageant founder.
The Little Miss St. Martin Pageant is open to girls ages 8 to 12 from the entire island. The show is set for Sunday, November 10 as a St. Martin Day weekend event.
Aspiring candidates for the pageant will have to register between July 2 and September 2, 2024, said Lake. The application form or any additional information can be obtained at nzingalake@gmail.com.
“Summer or the upcoming school vacation is near; graduation ceremonies are ongoing; parents and chaperones can take this opportunity to discuss the pageant with aspiring contestants,” said Lake.
The earlier-than-usual pageant announcement and registration gives all parties “more time to prepare their budgets and sponsorship letters; for each pageant team to work on designs, orders, and purchases for the contestant’s ‘princess wear’ and so on—five months ahead of the extravaganza,” said Lake.
The 2024 pageant theme is “Great Queens of Africa.” The idea is to “honor those fearless and beautiful queens of ancient Africa who stood out for their extraordinary leadership,” said Lake.
“Each contestant will select and depict one of these royal women who are recorded in history or remembered in oral traditions for promoting peace, wisdom, resilience, love and defense for country or kingdom, education, and the arts,” said Lake.
“So, imagine how the theme could inspire the fabulousness of the clothing and accessory designs, speech, and performance of contestants depicting legendary Queen Amina of Zazzau, Yaa Asantewaa of the Ashanti empire, Queen Makeda, who is also known as Queen of Sheba, Queen Nandi of the Zulus, or Queen Nzinga of the Ndongo and Matamba kingdoms, to name a few,” said Lake.
The main idea of the Little Miss St. Martin Pageant is, “Firstly, to serve as a motivational event and to inspire positive activities for young girls,” said Lake, who started the show in 2011, and is the director of its 5th edition this year.
“Secondly, the pageant honors the traditional sense of unity that “St. Martin Day” was founded on and named for. That is also why we use the traditional spelling of our island’s name to identify the pageant,” said Lake.