Baile to vie for Miss Universe Canada
Kelsey Baile Photo by Beauchamp Photography
Grande Prairie will be getting some national attention through resident Kelsey Baile with her role as one of the more then 60 finalists in the Miss Universe Canada beauty pageant.
Baile, 21, was raised in Grande Prairie, graduating from Grande Prairie Composite High School before attending St. Lawrence College in Brockville, Ont. for a three-year Musical Theatre Performance program. With her education in hand she returned to the Swan City and started an after-school drama program through Grande Prairie Live Theatre.
It was through her college program she originally heard of the Miss Universe Canada pageant and though she had her doubts, decided to give it a try.
"I looked into it and I thought to myself that I would never make it into it as I was only 20 at the time," said Baile. "At that time, I thought of it as just a beauty pageant but now I know they do all these wonderful things with various charities."
Having made the decision to enter the pageant, she was tasked with submitting an essay on what she would do as an ambassador for young women, drawing from personal experience and writing on anti-bullying and body positivity.
For Baile, the bullying started as young as kindergarten. She said girls in her class would taunt and call her names, invite her to birthday parties only to mock her, print her Facebook profile picture off and write derogatory words on it before putting them up around the school and even took it to the point of physically attacking her in high school. It all got too much for her and by the summer before Grade 12 she did not want to return to school.
Baile decided to fight back with kindness in the form of spending much of her senior year speaking with Grade 9 girls about bullying and body positivity, taking them out for lunch and telling them her own experience with bullying.
"It was amazing to see the change in their faces when they saw that myself, someone that came across as a happy confident person had gone through an awful ordeal," she said. "These girls would than tell me months later that I made such a difference for them. It was just amazing to hear that a single smile or hello or asking someone how their day is going can change a life."
Her essay got her through to the next round and started her on the path of training in the four aspects of the competition in Calgary once a month. The four categorizes include fitness for the bikini portion, elegance in an evening gown, humanitarian projects, and the interview portion that is based around social, economical and political ideas.
"It's amazing to represent Grande Prairie, especially right now with the recession and tough times we're going through. A lot of the time people just slip us under the rug, think of us as that 'oil town', but we have so much more to offer than that," Baile said. "We have such wonderful people here and the community and city have been so supportive and incredible to me."
Heading forward Baile has her sights set on raising the money it will take to go to the Miss Universe Canada pageant taking place in Toronto later this year, as well as organizing a local fundraiser for Operation Smile, a charity that raises money for surgical care for children suffering from cleft lip or cleft palate.
"I just want to bring a voice to anti-bullying and body positivity and this is an amazing avenue to do so." Baile said. "I hope young girls can see me doing this and have confidence and be strong in themselves."
To help support Baile visit www.gofundme.com/KelseyBaile or follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kelsey.baile to keep up-to-date on her road to Miss Universe Canada.
http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/2016/04/11/baile-to-vie-for-miss-universe-canada
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