Popular Mansfield pageant set to return with a community focus

The prestigious Mansfield pageant will return with a community focus and new organisers at the helm, looking for “bright, bubbly, and enthusiastic” community ambassadors.
By Phoebe Cox
Published 22nd Feb 2023, 12:05 BST
Updated 23rd Feb 2023, 10:11 BST
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Our area’s popular pageant contest will return this year for the first time since 2019, as three community figures have joined forces to look for the next Miss Mansfield & Sherwood Forest.

Tricia Mapletoft, contest organiser, businesswoman and 1989 Miss Mansfield & Sherwood Forest winner, said she is “thrilled” to bring the contest back with the help of the new organisers.

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Other community figures on board with the pageant’s revival are Kelly Wilson Parkes, who runs the events business Touch of Charm, and Lashes Foundation founder, Emma Wilson.

Photo of Emma Wilson, Tricia Mapletoft and Kelly Wilson Parkes by Nicole Eleanor Photography.Photo of Emma Wilson, Tricia Mapletoft and Kelly Wilson Parkes by Nicole Eleanor Photography.
Photo of Emma Wilson, Tricia Mapletoft and Kelly Wilson Parkes by Nicole Eleanor Photography.

Tricia said: “As everything else shut down in recent years, so did Miss Mansfield and our events.

“It was all going great before that, with raising money for charities and running annual pageants.

“It was something that was always burning inside me, to get that moving again for Mansfield along with the fundraising side of it.”

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She said she reached out to Emma on social media after hearing about the Lashes Foundation and their community work on the radio.

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Emma set up the Lashes Foundation, a charity to support the community, in honour of her late daughter Evie who died in 2021, aged 13.

She said: “It is really important to empower young girls and allow them to be the best versions of themselves. This is going to be good.”

Kelly, who is also a trustee of the Lashes Foundation, said: “I was honoured when Tricia asked the Lashes Foundation. I am happy to sponsor this through my business too.

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“I am a huge advocate for entrepreneurship and female empowerment. We have some good stuff coming up.”

Organisers said contestants must be between 17 and 25, and live in the Mansfield area.

Tricia said they are looking for ambassadors who are “bright, bubbly, enthusiastic, and love the idea of getting involved in the community and fundraising.”

More details can be found about this year’s pageant on the launch of their new website, www.missmansfield.co.uk on April 1.

A grand final will be held on Saturday, November 4 at The John Fretwell Centre.

Related topics:MansfieldOrganisers