It was on the verge of collapse, but the pageant to select royalty for the Cochrane Chimo Winter Carnival has been saved.
The near-cancellation of this year’s event was due to a lack of interest among high school girls, according to pageant vice-president Sue Girard. Only four registered.
“We weren’t going to hold a pageant at all, and then we thought what if we brought it down to a Miss Junior Chimo for this year,” she says. “And so we have the kids in the Grade 6 to Grade 8 that we put it out to, and we had 14 register.”
The pageant will be run the same way as the one for older girls in the past.
“It’s just like the tests will be a little easier,” says Girard, “and the speeches a little shorter than the older girls did, but everything else will be run the same as what we did before.”
Miss Junior Chimo will be crowned on Thursday, February 1st. The carnival goes the following weekend.