Smiles for miles

Posted on: Staff Writer

S3A24

Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter

 

On May 1 Strathmore’s Bailee Simonin will be hosting a Smiles for Miles Spring Charity Car Wash at the No Frills Gas Bar. Simonin is a contestant in the upcoming Miss Universe Canada competition, and as part of the pageant each contestant must host a charity event. This year the charity of choice for the pageant is Operation Smile.
Operation Smile is a non-profit organization that was created to provide children and young adults around the world, mainly in third world countries, with free surgery for cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.
In addition to the car wash there will be pizza available to purchase by the slice, donated by Boston Pizza (BP). There will also be members of the Strathmore Fire Department volunteering their time; a bake sale and BP’s mascot Lionel will be out.
“We’re also going to do pictures, so if you want to come and have pictures taken with myself and Lionel that will be there as well,” said Simonin.
The car wash will be by donation, with no actual minimum requirement.
“We don’t have an actual price for the car wash, it’s just going to be whatever people feel like donating,” said Simonin.
From now until the pageant, which begins with preliminaries on May 21, and ends with the finals on May 23, people are also encouraged to cast a vote for their favourite contestant online as part of the People’s Choice award. You can vote every six hours, up to four times a day at missuniversecanada.ca/vote/.
“The winner of the People’s Choice award, automatically moves into semi-finals,” said Simonin.
The Miss Universe Canada competition is not televised, but there will be a live stream at www.missuniversecanada.ca. Anyone who wants to make a donation to Operation Smile, or wants more information, can contact Siminon by email at baileesimonin@gmail.com.
Simonin is also competing to become Miss Calgary on May 9, and is selling tickets to that competition right now for $50 per person. The pageant will be held at the Temple B’Nai Tikvah, 900 47 Ave SW. Contact her via email to get your ticket.