George Herald | Casino to stage ninth Miss Garden Route & Klein Karoo in September

Translate to:


News	Classifieds	Directory

Entertainment News | Penveer | Submit Penveer | Download TV Guide

Casino to stage ninth Miss Garden Route & Klein Karoo in September
08:00 (GMT+2), Thu, 09 August 2012

The reigning Miss Garden Route & Klein Karoo Pageant is the lovely Zonke Frans from Knysna. Entries for the beauty pageant open on 10 August and participants have until 21 September to submit their photos and forms to Garden Route Casino.

GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Garden Route Casino will once again stage the Miss Garden Route and Klein Karoo Beauty Pageant in September.

This will be the ninth consecutive year that the casino has sponsored and organised this much-anticipated community event.

The glitzy, 'Phantom of the Opera'-themed gala event will be held on Saturday, 29 September at the casino's stylish Bravo Lounge.

Dubbed as 'a beauty pageant with a purpose', The Miss Garden Route and Klein Karoo competition has been held annually since 2004 to raise funds and awareness for four Southern Cape-based shelters for abused women and children.

Now entrenched as a prominent social and fundraising event, the pageant was endorsed by Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) as one of its official Tourism Month events in 2011. This year, the local tourism bureau has made contact with Wesgro, to hopefully welcome the honourable Minister of Tourism performing as a judge.

Well-known South African celebrity, women's issues ambassador, author and motivational speaker, Natasha Sutherland, is also linked with the pageant through her Big Heart Foundation.

"We are pleased to be in the position to once again sponsor and stage The Miss Garden Route and Klein Karoo Beauty Pageant. Over the years, we have seen this initiative grow to become a meaningful channel for generating awareness of women and children abuse in our region and for raising funds to support the organisations which have taken on the responsibility to support victims of abuse," says Robin Seabrook, General Manager of the Garden Route Casino.

"Although the competition has at its core a serious cause, it is also a glittering and fun platform giving young beauties from our community a chance to shine, and local designers can showcase their talents. Each year that we have hosted the competition, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity and support from individuals and companies in our region."

There is R200 000 worth of prizes to be won in the 2012 pageant, which is open to women aged between 18 and 27 from the Southern Cape.

Entries for the beauty pageant open on 10 August and participants have until 21 September to submit their photos and forms to Garden Route Casino, PO Box 1663, 6500 or hand the entries in at the casino's host desk. Entry forms are available at the local tourism bureau.

For more information, call the host desk on 044 606 7541.

Twenty semi-finalists will be chosen by the judging panel and will undergo interviews at the casino on 24 September at 19:30. Twelve finalists will be selected on that day to compete in the finals of the competition.

The finalists will wear dresses and swimwear designed by young designers from the George-based design school, The Fashion Training Studio. These designers will compete for various design awards to be presented on the evening.
Seabrook concludes, "We are gearing up to make this year's event bigger and better than previous years', and hope to beat our fundraising record. We hope that our community will get behind the initiative again this year. The success of this campaign depends on the support we get from local people."

Companies or individuals interested in becoming a sponsor of the 2012 pageant can contact Tryana Potgieter, the casino's promotions coordinator, for more information, on tryana.potgieter@tsogosun.com.