PUHI — A family tribute earned Shannon Dresser top honors in the talent phase of the 2011 Miss Garden Isle/Miss Kaua‘i scholarship pageant, Saturday at the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center. Playing before a strong audience that reinforced the
PUHI — A family tribute earned Shannon Dresser top honors in the talent phase of the 2011 Miss Garden Isle/Miss Kaua‘i scholarship pageant, Saturday at the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center.
Playing before a strong audience that reinforced the field of nine contestants with cheers and noise-makers, Dresser twirled a pair of batons in a routine described as “Dance Twirl” in honor of her grandparents, both drum majors.
That performance edged out others that ranged from vocal presentations, a variety of hula, Tahitian dance and a drum solo performed by Kapa‘a High School graduate Lei U‘i Kaholokula who finished the night winning the Spirit award.
Dresser also won the lifestyle and fitness phase en route to being crowned the 2011 Miss Garden Isle.
Kona-Kai Wilson of Kapa‘a was confident through the different phases to emerge as the 2011 Miss Kaua‘i, the only contestant to offer a Tahitian dance medley moving her through an aparima to otea presentation behind a well-recorded background track.
Tioni Tam Sing, standing strong behind her platform of breaking the silence of domestic violence, belted out a strong vocal rendition of a number from “Titanic,” challenging the performance of Celine Dion who popularized the song. Tam Sing won first runner-up, being advised that in the event of Miss Garden Isle or Miss Kaua‘i being named Miss Hawai‘i, she would fill the vacancy.
A domestic violence prevention advocate, Liane Ancajas was named the pageant’s second runner-up.
Jaime Hightower was voted Most Congenial by the field of nine contestants.
J Robertson of Ho‘ike Community Television, serving as the evening’s emcee, said this year’s pageant offered more than $84,000 in scholarships and grants from Hawai‘i Pacific University.
Dresser and Wilson, by earning their titles, were each awarded a variety of prizes centering around the $7,000 annual scholarship grants renewable for up to four years.
Tam Sing and Ancajas, with their respective titles, were each awarded $3,500 a year in scholarships, renewable for up to four years.
Dresser and Wilson join Daphne Sanchez, recently crowned Miss Island Mokihana, as candidates for the Miss Hawai‘i scholarship pageant later this year.
The Miss Hawai‘i program is a step toward Miss America, reportedly the largest scholarship program for young women in the world.
Last year, the Miss America Organization and its state and local organizations gave more than $45 million in cash and scholarship assistance to young women, states its website.
