Westmoreland Festival Queen wants to return life to Grange Hill

While Grange Hill in Westmoreland has got a negative reputation due to violent crimes in recent times, long-time resident Santana Burnett is aiming to use her newly gained status as Westmoreland Festival Queen 2018 to inspire her peers in the crime-ravaged community.

"Most of the youths in my community of Grange Hill are unemployed and are not in school, so my first focus is to get everybody integrated through one-and-one sessions, through forums and other planned events," said the 25-year-old Burnett, a radiology technologist and past student of Manning's School in the parish.

"Grange Hill is seen as a bad place, but you really have good people there, and that is what I want, to bring back the peace and love and unity, because it used to be a very good place."

If her support at Westmoreland Festival Queen pageant is anything to go by, she will surely get the support of her fellow community members for her parish project. "Surprisingly, a lot of Grange Hill residents came out to the competition, all united and celebrating the occasion together."

During the colourful pageant, which was held at the Sean Lavery Faith Hall in Savanna-la-Mar, Burnett edged out eight other contestants to claim the first-place prize, with contestants Shion Laing and Sophena Locke taking second and third place, respectively.

Besides the first-place crown, Burnett also won prizes for being the most congenial participant, the best performer, and the most poised contestant.