POINCIANA – In the past few days, Melody Nadal said, her phone has been ringing off the hook from women who are excited and want a lot more information.
“It’s gone crazy with calls and people asking for the deadline,” Nadal said. “We had a deadline for June 8, and it was extended to June 18, and from there we’ll send out a welcome letter to all the applicants.”
Those applicants, she added, are the women expected to enter the Miss Poinciana Pageant, which will be held for the first time this year, in conjunction with Poinciana’s ongoing 40th anniversary bash.
“We started Miss Poinciana Pageant because we wanted to do something for the 40th anniversary that hasn’t been done before,” said Nadal, the pageant director. “I felt this was a good self-esteem thing for girls to get into. There’s a lot of bullying out there, so we wanted something positive for the girls. And if it takes off, Miss Poinciana will represent us in the Miss Florida Competition.”

Nadal is the founder of Poinciana Pros, a business networking and support group that helps give Poinciana area companies, including many self-employed residents, a way to reach a wider audience across Central Florida, and to bring them together under one roof once a month. Nadal and her daughter Dominique also run Nadal Enterprises, which provides business consultations. Poinciana Pros sprang from that business, and the group meets on Tuesday evenings.
The Poinciana Pros members came up with the idea for the Miss Poinciana Pageant, and then presented it to the Association of Poinciana Villages, the community’s homeowners association. The APV agreed to become the official sponsor of this event, in a year when Poinciana is marking its 40th year as a community.
“We said ‘Let’s go with it,’ and we went to the APV and they were thrilled to be our sponsor,” Nadal said.
The competition is tentatively set for July 27, and the sponsors have received invaluable assistance organizing this event from someone who knows a thing or two about beauty pageants, Nadal said.
“Valerie Trinidad is the 2012 Miss Kissimmee Florida Latina winner, and she’s the assistant director and coach for this pageant,” Nadal said. “I want her to be recognized for that. She’s really donated a lot of her time to this event. She’s been a real advantageous person to have working on this.”
Trinidad said she loves the idea of bringing a pageant to Poinciana.
“I knew Melody since I moved here six years ago,” Trinidad said. “She knew about me doing pageants, and she always supported me on that. When she came up with the idea of doing a Miss Poinciana Pageant, I fell in love with the idea. I believe in Poinciana and I love this community, and there are not a lot of things to do around here, so this will be a great opportunity for the girls who enter.”
For one thing, pageants help young girls build confidence in themselves, she said.
“Pageants are about beauty, but also inner beauty and talent, and I wanted young girls in Poinciana to experience that,” Trinidad said.
To learn more about the pageant, applicants can call Nadal at 321-437-6750 or email PoincianaPros@aol.com. Applications are now available in Poinciana at Starbucks, the Poinciana Community Center and the Boys and Girls Club of Poinciana.
In conjunction with Poinciana’s 40th anniversary, the pageant will crown a Little Miss, Teen Miss and Miss Poinciana 2013.
“So far we have a lot of Little Miss applicants,” Nadal said. “We hope that it’s a success and it can be the first of one done annually.”
She added that a community of Poinciana’s size deserves to have its own women’s beauty and talent competition. Poinciana has more than 84,000 residents living in 10 villages, and it was one of the fastest growing communities in the past decade.
“These girls will be making history this year, even if they win or not,” Trinidad said. “It’s going to be amazing. I’m also going to be coaching the girls and showing how to have fun in the pageant. You are competing, but it’s also about having fun and making friends.”
This year, Poinciana is marking its 40th birthday. The APV hosted a birthday bash on Saturday, May 26 during the Memorial Day Weekend, and will host two other special communitywide events, one in October and the final one in December.
Over the summer, the Miss Poinciana Pageant will be the next anniversary-related event on the roster. Nadal said she hopes it grows each year, getting bigger and better.
“We’d like to connect it to where we could move on to Miss Florida and then on up to Miss America,” Nadal said.

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