Recently crowned Carnival Teen Queen Shakainah T. Pompier-Arrindell has her eyes firmly set on becoming an ambassador for her island by representing the country in pageants abroad. She also wants to organise a queen day for girls growing up in single-parent homes and to assist community service groups with their activities geared towards helping the youth of St. Maarten.
Born in Zaandam, Netherlands, Shakainah was raised in St. Maarten. She lives in a single-parent home with her mother Tatiana Arrindell and her two younger siblings Geanah and Omari. She said she is blessed to have as neighbours her great-grandmother (age 85) and her grandparents, uncle, aunt, great uncles and aunts and many cousins.
Shakainah describes herself as a positive person. “With everything that is being said about my peers, I would choose to remain positive about our capabilities in becoming the leaders of this country.”
This was Shakainah’s first pageant, following in the footsteps of her mother who placed first runner-up in the 2012 Miss Mature Pageant. “I got my first taste of the stage as my mom’s ring girl during the creative sports segment. From that day forward, I begged and pleaded with her to allow me to enter a pageant. She finally said yes after five years.” Shakainah said she received approval to compete in September 2016 when the planning phase began with her chaperone Stacy-Ann Taylor.
Shakainah: “I would say what gave me the edge over my fellow delegates would be my support team that believed in me and our capability to think outside the box.” She credits her win to dedication, hard work and planning, amongst other things. “This didn’t just happen overnight. There were nights that I practiced until 2:00 in the morning and still had to wake up at 5:45am for school, only to do it all over again. I would like to take this time to thank my chaperone for her hard work and not forgetting my sponsors, without whose contributions, my dream of winning the crown could not have materialised.”
Shakainah cited some of the challenges she encountered in the process: late commitments for sponsorship and an accident her mom had two days before the pageant where she had to be hospitalised. “During the training for my talent segment, I also experienced sores on my hands, body pain as well as having to overcome my fear of height.”
Shakainah believes that pageantry can be improved if there were more contributions from the business community. As for the future, she would like to represent St. Maarten in pageants in the Dominican Republic, Saba, St. Kitts and Nevis and ultimately participate in the St. Maarten Senior Carnival Queen Pageant. “My dream is to one day represent St. Maarten in the Miss Universe pageant,” she said.
Shakainah’s advice to youngsters who want to compete in pageants is straight forward: “Be prepared for hard work; balance school and practices; and surround yourself with people who believe in you. Pageantry is more than just looks. It is about believing in yourself and most importantly having a positive attitude.”
