February 05th 2011
Making St. Lucia Proud
By Kendell “Scady” Eugene

It may seem that she is always on our cover or inside the magazine but I am sure all will be forgiven when we say that she has represented our island well. In what many may want to call a controversial ending, Rackie, is adamant that the better teen won that night and is very proud of all the results her hard work had brought at the end of it all. For those of us who don’t know what I am referring to. Racquel John represented St. Lucia at the Digicel Haynes Smith Caribbean Talented Teen Pageant in St. Kitts last December. She qualified by participating in the local Mr. and Ms. St.Lucia's Most Talented Teen Pageant and after winning the crown her work towards St. Kitts immediately started.
“Preparations for the pageant held in St. Kitts were sometimes tiring but were also great! She told us. “I was trained by Mr. Barry George and Ms. Iva Satney (a former contestant and former Carnival Queen of St. Lucia). I had many lines to learn for my talent and speech.” “My walking was another aspect I had to work on as well as emotions, socialization skills and voice.”
All these aspects would flourish at the pageant and she admitted that one of her expectations was winning the pageant but to her winning wasn’t everything. “Well, my greatest expectation was to win the pageant however as we know winning isn't everything I expected to meet new people with different backgrounds, learn more about St. Kitts and Nevis, put on a great performance to not only wow the audience and the judges but as well as to live them with something to think about.
Did she ever give them something to remember! The little lady who would light up any room she walked into with her warm smile had some big shoes to fill any expectations to live up to. St. Lucia had never placed outside of the top three spots but once and this year we were defending the crown. That is enough to make anyone nervous right? Well guess who wasn’t nervous?” If you said Rackie then you are wrong! Read on and you will find out.

She admitted that during her three day stay in St. Kitts as a contestant in the pageant the many interviews, guest appearances, lunches, dinners and interaction with the Kittians was exciting and tiring at the sometime. As the big day drew nearer her nerves started kicking in but she knew she had to put it all aside.
Her first appearance on stage was the Ambassadorial Appearance. For her it was not nerve racking, she described it as fun and festive. From that appearance onwards she felt quite comfortable with the audience and the judges. She was very impressed with the amount of support the audience gave to the girls. “The audience was really large despite the inclement weather however the reception was not extremely great compared to how it usually is back home. Despite this they were very attentive and supportive of all the girls.”
The pageant featured five (5) categories Ambassadorial Speech, Talent, Production Number, Evening Wear and Interview. In her opinion her strongest categories were the Ambassadorial Speech and Onstage Interview. Overall she says that she believed that she put on a good performance and achieved at least two goals which were to make my country proud and also to deliver a solid message to the people of the Caribbean.
In the end our girl didn’t keep the crown home but she did make us extremely proud. The final results: St. Thomas (3rd runner up) followed by St. Lucia (2nd runner up) then Jamaica (1st runner up) and Grenada was crowned Digicel Miss Haynes Smith Caribbean Talented Teen. After the results the crowd was taken a back because St. Kitts had won three segments and did not place however after that shocker everyone were in great spirits and congratulated all the participants.

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