Young competitor raises medical funds

FOUR-YEAR-OLD Laylah Ross is Teesdale’s youngest local pageant queen and she’s developing a love for charitable efforts.

Set to compete for the title of Mini Miss Diamond International in Brisbane in mid-April, Laylah’s mother and supporter Brydie Ross said with the pageant is centred around charity work, they were excited to jump on board.

“Charity work is a big part of the pageant and also some public appearance stuff, so we try to get to charity events and fundraisers that are local,” she said.

“We chose Barwon Health as our charity because the hospital have looked after both Laylah and my son, they’ve always been great and we wanted a way to give back and say thank you.

“On the day of the pageant, she will compete in a charity wear section, that’s where we will create an outfit for her to wear that represents the children’s ward.”

As the core component of the pageant is charity work, Ms Ross said they’ve found a variety of ways to raise funds and get involved in their community.

“Laylah’s kinder in Bannockburn as well are hosting a fancy-dress day for her with a gold coin donation and then all donations go directly to the hospital’s children’s ward,” she said,

“My son’s school are also doing a gold coin donation fundraiser.”

Having competed in pageants since she was two, Ms Ross said although this isn’t Laylah’s first competition she will be one of the youngest to ever compete for Mini Miss Diamond.

“This is the first time they’ve accepted four year olds into the pageant because the youngest age group is actually six to nine years,” she said. “She’ll be competing up quite a bit but we have no doubt she’ll have just as much fun.

“There’s no one else from the region competing, I think only a couple of other girls from Melbourne, everyone else is from around the globe.”

After receiving a scholarship to help get her through the pageant, Ms Ross said they feel really lucky to have been included in the competition at all.

“A lot of the girls have been doing it for a year now, because it was due to happen last year, but because of COVID obviously they had to postpone it,” she said.

“Being gifted the scholarship only a couple of weeks ago, we are playing catch up and have to work a bit harder to do all of the charity work we want to.

“That’s okay because we like a challenge and all of the other girls who have been doing it for quite a while are really supportive and excited to have Laylah join them.”

As for Laylah, while she’s a seasoned campaigner, it’s the little things she’s looking forward to about the trip to Brisbane.

“Yes, I am excited for the pageant, and I’m most excited to get on a plane,” she said.