Annual Miss Bogota Pageant will not take place in 2016
The annual Miss Bogota Beauty Pageant will not be taking place for the first time in four years.
The Miss Bogota Pageant, and the new addition of the Mr. Bogota Pageant that was to be introduced this year, was previously hosted by the Bogota Community Alliance (BCA).
The event was held last year in November at the Bogota Recreation Center.
The BCA, while still in existence, has been having trouble keeping the organization afloat and involved.
Mayor Chris Kelemen said he was unaware the organization still existed.
"They haven’t had a meeting in over a year. You can’t have a beauty pageant if you have don’t have the alliance," he said.
BCA Vice President Ingrid Brito said that the organization is still active and she is still vice president, for the time being. According to Brito, only about four potential beauty pageant contestants expressed interest in participating, despite initial indications that there would be more interested applicants.
"It was not worth the cost to continue," she said.
According to Brito, the door is open for the pageant to continue next year should the BCA receive enough interest.
"We are hoping," she said.
Kelemen said that he would be interested in participating again should the event return. The mayor was previously invited to speak at the pageant when he was elected last year, and participated in the coronation process of the winners.
"I thought it was wonderful; I thought it was beautiful," he said.
The pageant was previously self-funded through entry fees and BCA fundraising efforts, according to Marianela Santana, the former president of the organization who recently moved away from Bogota.
Applications were open to Bogota residents and residents of surrounding towns, boys and girls ages 5 to 17.
The BCA was founded in 2011. According to its page on the borough website, the organization exists to "promote and foster the inclusion and integration of residents of the municipality of Bogota into as many aspects as possible of the borough's public life through voluntary cooperation, collaboration, and sharing."
Many of its programs are specific to helping new residents and their families integrate into the community’s "civic, social and cultural fabric." It is registered through the state of New Jersey as a nonprofit group.
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