Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter

National Festival Queen 1988, Georgia McDonald.

There were some happy Clarendonians in 1988 as Georgia McDonald won the Miss Festival Queen competition.

Now Morrison, the assistant manager at the Bank of Nova Scotia branch in St. Andrew looks back at the competition. It was the good advice of a teacher that got her to enter.

"He thought I had the attributes. He thought I was intelligent, talented and culturally aware," she said. She felt the competitio her sense of country.

"It has helped me to be more civic minded," she reasons. In the past, contestants like herself did not have to work on a project as the latter-day contestants do. But they were still encouraged to interact. "It has definitely helped me to be more focused on volunteerism," she said.

Having worked at BNS for the past nine years, she sees how the competition has helped her in advancing her career.

"It helped me in my personal development, my deportment and grooming. I won as a student and had to balance the roles of being a queen with studies," she pointed out. Dependent on the outlook you have, the festival queen competition is not as revered as others like Miss Jamaica World. But Morrison is adamant that even as times in Jamaica change, the competition has not lost its fervour.

"It's a good thing to have a cultural ambassador. You need someone who can be seen as a role model for other young women especially for those in the rural or non-urban areas, as I think this competition has more of a reach for those women."