Miss Jamaica Festival Queen Ends Successful UK Visit

Miss Jamaica Festival Queen 2006, Kaysia Johnson has been hailed as an outstanding ambassador for Jamaica, following her successful one week visit to the United Kingdom.
Miss Johnson, who was a special guest at the second Jamaica Diaspora Conference on June 16, was not only an active participant during the conference workshops but her performance at the cultural concert that ended the day was the highlight of the evening.
Conference delegates praised her for her poise, intelligence and talent and said she was a role model for young Jamaicans and young people in general.The 24 year-old queen was equal in her praise for the UK Jamaican community and the warm reception she received.
“It has been a marvellous experience. The persons here, they were just so receptive, warm and hospitable. I felt that I was at home away from home.When I visited the various communities, how they responded made me feel proud that I was able to represent my country,” she told JIS News.
In addition to the Diaspora Conference, Miss Johnson was also a special guest of the Trelawny Overseas Relief Association (TORA) in Walsall, where she was received by the Mayor. Accompanied by Chaperone, Director of the Festival Queen Competition, Dorrett Thaxter, she called on Lee Jasper, the special Advisor to the Mayor of London and toured WT Foods, one the UK largest food distributors, which was recently acquired by the Kingston based GraceKennedy Ltd.
“My visit to WT Foods was a great experience. To think that a Jamaican company could acquire a UK company that was one of the top distributors, I felt proud being a Jamaican. It proved the Jamaican proverb, ‘we little but we talawa’,” she said.
Miss Johnson is a graduate of Westwood High School and holds a Bachelors degree in Communications and an MBA in Marketing.
She is very involved in community work as the Public Relations Officer of the Clarks Town Sports Club, captain of the Clarks Town Netball team, a member of the Clarks Town Cultural Committee and a mentor to two students. She also provides support for the Best Care Lodge and the Golden Age Home. Miss Johnson combines her very active community involvement with a fulltime job in Kingston. “I have always been busy in my life. I like being busy. It is okay to be busy as long as you are productive. I have been like this from primary school right through high school and university. It has been manageable to give back and at the same time work.
What I do is each month I try to go back to Trelawny to give back something I take probably one weekend to go back and do the community work. When I was in charge of the netball programme and I used to play netball, I used to go back every weekend to play a match or be there,” she said.
Her plans for the future include applying to be a Youth Ambassador for Jamaica and reading for her PhD as well as continuing with her community projects.
In terms of her career, she plans to become one of the island’s leading entrepreneurs.