SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Leighanne Charles, 27, is the new Miss To­ba­go Her­itage Per­son­al­i­ty 2022. Charles took the crown on Sat­ur­day night, at the Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex. The event was one of the ma­jor high­lights of the To­ba­go Her­itage Fes­ti­val. 

Leighanne scored 1,336 points and she al­so took home to her com­mu­ni­ty of Pem­broke the ti­tles of Miss In­tel­li­gence, Best Tal­ent and Best Gown Por­tray­al. Leighanne Charles is the hold­er of a Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts de­gree in Cre­ative Arts from The UWI, Cave Hill.

Miss Tobago Heritage Personality 2022, Leighanne Charles, pays tribute to her grandmother Anona Berkley in the talent segment of the show. (Image by VINDRA GOPAUL)

"I feel amaz­ing!  I feel over­whelmed by the love and sup­port I got from my com­mu­ni­ty, my friends, my sup­port­ers,” she told Guardian Me­dia.  “My on­ly in­ten­tion was to ho­n­our my late grand­moth­er, Anona Berkley, in the best way that I can. She was a To­ba­go tra­di­tion­al dancer. I worked hard and tire­less­ly and it paid off."

As part of the Miss To­ba­go Her­itage Per­son­al­i­ty, Leighanne said she plans to ac­ti­vate her vil­lage project ti­tled, “Se­cur­ing Ado­les­cent Voic­es to En­gi­neer De­vel­op­ment (SAVED)”. She said this is a hub to as­sist in the holis­tic de­vel­op­ment of youths. 

Miss Photogenic 2022, Kekoa Butcher. (Image by VINDRA GOPAUL)

“We want per­sons to be well trained and de­vel­oped in the Cre­ative Arts who can com­pete in the in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket. We al­so want the re­gion to shine in­ter­na­tion­al­ly," ex­plained Leighanne, who is a Dance Res­i­dent at the To­ba­go Per­form­ing Arts Com­pa­ny.

Plac­ing sec­ond was Re­bec­ca Bobb with 1,238 points.  Third place was award­ed to Shami­ka De­noon with 1,233 points.  Kekoa Butch­er won the Miss Ami­ty and Miss Pho­to­genic awards.

Finalist Kekoa Butcher performed a humourous dance drama presentation depicting a female relative wanting to forge the will of a sleeping woman she believes is deceased. (Image by VINDRA GOPAUL)

The show be­gan short­ly af­ter 8 pm on Sat­ur­day, Ju­ly 23, with a short cul­tur­al pre­sen­ta­tion and an in­tro­duc­tion of the del­e­gates.

The del­e­gates then showed off their cre­ativ­i­ty in the ar­eas of song, dance and dra­ma in the tal­ent seg­ment. The del­e­gates then pa­rad­ed in their evening gowns, which were themed to rep­re­sent the birds of To­ba­go.

Finalist Ayesha Nichols did an impressive dance on bamboo poles in the talent segment of the show. (Image by VINDRA GOPAUL)

Crowd par­tic­i­pa­tion was healthy among sup­port­ers. Many clapped loud­ly and chant­ed when the del­e­gates they sup­port­ed ap­peared on stage. One woman re­peat­ed­ly chant­ed "co­cori­co" when­ev­er Re­bec­ca Bobb took to the stage. Bobb's por­tray­al was that of the Cocrico.

How­ev­er, in the end, the sup­port was unit­ed for Leighanne when the win­ners were an­nounced