“When I’m done,” she laughed, “I’m going to the beach.”
But as exhausting as this week of last minute preparations has been, Nadal said organizing the first ever pageant in her home community of Poinciana has been an enormously rewarding experience – in part because the whole concept really seems to have brought the entire community together.
“It’s a whole lot of work,” she said. “You can only do what you can do, and if it wasn’t for the graciousness of everyone who donated and helped us, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
On Friday at 7 p.m. sharp at the Poinciana Community Center, the first ever Miss Poinciana Pageant will be held.
The pageant is being held in conjunction with Poinciana’s ongoing 40th anniversary bash, and Nadal, the pageant director, helped organize the event to provide a platform for the community’s women – and to create an event that she hopes will become a source of pride for everyone in Poinciana.
“For a first time ever pageant, this is exceptional,” she said. “We’re doing an awesome job. I’m really pleased.”
The Community Center auditorium seats 300 people, and so far, Nadal said, “We have 100 or more seats that we’ve sold from the contestants and their family alone.”
Tickets for the event are $15 at the door, or $10 if they reserved in advance by calling 321-437-6750.
The pageant is being sponsored by the Association of Poinciana Villages, the homeowner’s association that oversees the community’s 10 villages, and as Nadal noted, it represents history in the making.
For those who attend, she said, there will not only be a fun show to enjoy, but “You get a raffle ticket, and you get a program. That program is a lifetime keepsake. It has a shelf life forever. This will be something that people will save because it’s the very first one. We’ll have those programs we give out with each seat.”
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.
Nadal and her daughter Dominique also run Nadal Enterprises, which provides business consultations. The Poinciana Pros members came up with the idea for the Miss Poinciana Pageant, and then presented it to the APV, which agreed to become the official sponsor of this event.
Valerie Trinidad, the 2012 Miss Kissimmee Florida Latina winner, is serving as the assistant director and coach for this pageant, which will crown a Little Miss, Teen Miss and Miss Poinciana 2013.
Nadal said what’s most impressive has been the overwhelming support this project has received from the parents of the contestants, who absolutely loved the entire concept.
“The parents have been a huge help,” she said. “This is going to be an all-natural pageant. It’s going to be based on what they know about Poinciana, and it’s not just beauty and poise. It’s not one of those pageants. This is a pageant that represents the entire community.”
It’s also being held in part because 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.
At the same time, Nadal said, she and the other organizers want to make this an annual event that grows each year, getting bigger and better.
That’s an ambitious goal, but this first one has come together so well, she said, that it appears to have a promising future.
“It’s been a huge undertaking,” she said, “but it’s very rewarding.”
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