She may not be the typical beauty queen in that she’s neither skinny nor especially tall, but 21 year old Karima Card didn’t need those qualities to become the 63rd Queen of the Bay. Card beat 9 other contestants and won the prestigious title on Saturday night in addition to a prize for Miss Eloquence. Today the queen designate returned to the classroom as a primary school teacher. She told us her victory isn’t just hers.
Karima Card, Queen Designate
“It felt very good, I am excited, I am happy. It is a very good experience. I really enjoyed it and I had a wonderful time.”
Keith Swift,
What does it mean to you to be the 63rd Queen of the Bay?
Karima Card,
“Well it means a lot. As we know this is a very prestigious pageant and a lot of young ladies, little girls, they look up to the Queen of the Bay and I just feel good to be that role model for them to look up to.”
Keith Swift,
What is the message you hope the other young ladies will get from your victory?
Karima Card,
“Well the Queen of the Bay Pageant is not a beauty pageant and we’ve been saying that and it is a pageant to show the love for our country, it is something patriotic. It is to show how much we love Belize and it is what we have in our minds, it is the brain – not beauty. So I just want to encourage the young ladies to use your talent, be confident, be proud of who you are and what you have.”
Karima Card is the queen designate. She will be officially crowned by the reigning queen Ronnie Coye on September 10th.
