← Culturally Speaking: The South Florida Sunday Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript22 lines
- [00:00]
A
You know what, it always brings me joy to hear about organizations who work with the youth in our community and give them the tools they need and build them into the next generation of leaders with whatever they want to do. And I feel like the Miss ARC Broward Pageant does just that. Julie Price, the president and CEO of Ark Broward, joining us right now. Thank you so much for being here.
- [00:20]
B
It's a pleasure. Thank you.
- [00:21]
A
For listeners who may not be familiar with it, what is the Ms. Arc Broward pageant?
- [00:25]
B
Yeah, the Ms. Arc Broward pageant is a fun, exciting event that we do on an annual basis. And, and it focuses on girls six to 17 primarily. It's a confidence building empowerment program for these young women. Though it's often coined a pageant, it really isn't traditional in that pageant sense. It's really focused more on the girls abilities, their personality and their growth. Where we take the opportunity to celebrate each contestant's unique strengths and achievements that comes together and brings opportunities for these girls to shine in an extremely powerful way.
- [00:59]
A
Right, and you mentioned that, you know, your pageant is different because what people are used to when they hear about pageants, they think hair and makeup and costumes, but you don't focus on that.
- [01:09]
B
Not at all. Not at all. There's really no focus on physical appearance or competition in that real sense. Every contestant is celebrated and recognized for their unique personality, for their talents. We spent a lot of time focusing on building the girl's expression, their self expression, their confidence and their life skills. And ultimately this, this pageant is about building each other up, not competing against each other.
- [01:34]
A
And you see these girls from the beginning to the end, so you can see a huge impact. Can you talk about the impact on the young women involved?
- [01:42]
B
Yeah, absolutely. The pageant, what we've seen over time, we've been actually doing this pageant for more than a decade, sort of a year to year basis. We see huge gains in the girls confidence, their independence, their communication skills. We often encourage them to step out of their comfort zone where they may have been shy, to go up on stage and to sing and dance, to be able to have the ability to do that. The long lasting friendships that the girls make in the pageant and how the families grow together. And then on a long term basis, we love to see where girls have just continued to shine and grow. So to see girls who have been in the pageant 10 years ago, who are now living out their dreams, some of them are doing college or post secondary work, some of them are employed, some are entrepreneurs and you know, focusing on things that they love and what they're passionate for. So it's got lots of short term and long term benefits.
- [02:36]
A
Right. And I love the, you know, you building the confident aspects of it because that's kind of that tool in their toolbox. And I think so many people can go further if they just believed in themselves and they had that community around them. Which you're actually creating with your pageant.
- [02:50]
B
Yes, absolutely. A lot of these girls, you know, they don't. They have not necessarily been in environments or places where they have been able to establish friendships like they do through this pageant. Girls who share a common bond, common interest, and those who don't, but who learn to enjoy other people's talents and interests and passions and confidence is just exuding when you talk to some of these girls, girls who would barely speak at the beginning of the pageant season, for example, who at the end are standing up there on stage shining bright and giving it their all and leaning in in every way that they can.
- [03:24]
A
Right. And you actually just pointed out something that I think is so important is to be grateful and happy for other people's talent and let other people shine and not have that env. That is such an important skill that I don't think is really taught very often.
- [03:37]
B
Absolutely.
- [03:38]
A
You also have a Teen Ambassadors program. Right. Can you tell us about them and what role they play?
- [03:44]
B
Sure, sure. The Teen Ambassadors are an interesting part of our sort of our pageant journey. They are a group of 25 plus local middle and high school students. And at the beginning of the pageant season, we bring the ambassadors and the pageant contestants together. They get to learn about each other, to be able to start to spark friendships, and we pair them together. And what happens over time is that the Teen Ambassadors support the pageant contestant throughout the journey. So when we talk about the journey, our pageant isn't a one and done. There is that end of the season pageant, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But there's also a lot of activities that build up into that in terms of times where they can get together and socialize and spend time together and just develop really fun relationships. What we love for the Teen Ambassadors is that they are learning how to be compassionate young ladies who demonstrate empathy, whose leadership skills start to develop over time, and who really understand the value of inclusion and belonging.
- [04:45]
A
And you know what? I think we're even more excited to watch them shine. So let's talk about the upcoming Miss Ark Broward Pageant. When is that going to take place?
- [04:53]
B
Yeah, the pageant is Sunday, May 11th at 2pm at the Parker in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It's always a high energy, uplifting, emotional event. So bring your tissues. I promise you we'll go through more than a box. The audience can expect smiles, smiles, cheering, unforgettable moments, moments where fathers will get up on stage and dance with their daughters for their talents. Where you see, you know, young girls shine in a way that you never could have imagined. It is truly a celebration of ability, confidence and joy.
- [05:21]
A
That is going to be so amazing. So you said it was May 17th at the park in Fort Lauderdale?
- [05:27]
B
Yeah. Tickets are available now, and we encourage everybody to go on and get your ticket before they sell out. They're $22. You can get those on Ticketmaster. And you can also go to our website, which is arc broward.com arcbroward.com Julie,
- [05:42]
A
thank you so much for joining us today. We love this program. What if listeners want to get, you know, involved in it or participate in any way? Is that where they go to arcbroward.com as well?
- [05:53]
B
Yes, yes. On our website, you'll see information about the pageant and the ability to reach out to us. There's lots of ways to get involved if you. You're someone who is interested in this type of fun, uplifting event. We encourage you to buy tickets if you have a group of friends, co workers, sports team, whatever it may be. We have what we call cheer squads. And a group of people can get together and become a cheer squad. And we will assign you a young lady, will tell you about their interests. And then we have lots of cheer squads who will make posters, they'll bring musical instruments. They will. They will bring the Parker to life on that day to celebrate these girls. It sounds like so much fun.
- [06:30]
A
And you also have sponsorships available, right?
- [06:33]
B
We do. We still have sponsorships available. That information is also on our website. Every bit of support helps to create tremendous opportunities for children and adults with disabilities in our community. And there's lots of things that this community always rises to the occasion to support our activities. And we truly appreciate it. The website is arcbroward.com arcbroward.com.