Lethbridge Model and Philantrop Jaime Vandenberg Crowned Miss Universe Canada
On Saturday, the five finalists of Miss Universe Canada gave a minute -long speech during a gala in Windsor.
The participants could talk about everything they wanted. So for Jaime Vandenberg from Lethbridge opted for a heavy subject, albeit that is close to her. She spoke about gender -based violence. It was partly sobering reality and partly motivating speech.
“I used the time to talk about how every 11 minutes a woman dies because of gender -based violence, but we can be the generation of change,” says Vandenberg, who repeats part of the speech in a telephone interview with Postmedia. “Every moment and every second we are here a chance to change, go after your dreams and achieve everything you have ever wanted.”
She also told a harrowing moment in 2021 when she was shot by a stranger on the street, and avoided death barely.
“When I spoke about surviving rifle, the entire audience became silent,” she says. “It was insane to be able to talk to such thousands of people. To silence a room of so many people, it was absolutely wild.”
Later in the evening, Vandenberg Miss Universe Canada was proclaimed, which means that she will represent the country in November on the Miss Universe parade in Thailand.
The victory came after more than a week of the competition that the international model and philanthropist used against 70 delegates from all over Canada. That included Calgary’s Elise Featherstone, who was once a participant in the American reality series Nude and Bang; Entrepreneur Kirsten Andresen, who recently obtained a degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Calgary; Sarah Lambros, A
seismic processor
and former Calgary Stamede Princess; And Sonia Saxon, an entrepreneur and engineer.
The delegates have been implemented since 1 August, including traditional rated components based on evening dresses and swimwear and a “best-body” competition, which caused a bit of a bit
As some considered it a seriously outdated category.
But the representatives also had to draw up a humanitarian report that was worth 25 percent of their score, based on the fundraising of every delegate for the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Philanthropy has already been a large part of the life of Vandenberg. The 28-year-old grew up in Coaldale before he went to the University of Lethbridge and studied philosophy. She served as a crisis support employee in the Victim Services Unit at the Lethbridge police station, where she assisted in domestic violence.
She did the entrance test of the law study and planned to become a lawyer, but became a model instead. She drew four years ago with Calgary’s fashion models and has modeled all over the world.
In 2022 she received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for her philanthropy, including a project called Pico for a goal. While she lived in Mexico City, she called on the highest mountain in the country, Pico de Oizaba, and picked up $ 3,000 for the Lethbridge YWCA and a women’s shelter in Mexico city.
She started mountain climbing as a form of therapy to help overcome the 2021 incident. Vandenberg was on a modeling when it happened. She does not want to reveal in which country she was except to say that it was not Canada. But it could have been, she says. Sulious violence was a “silent endemic during the pandemic” in Canada, which shoots up by 40 percent.
“It is absolutely not something that Canada is upstairs, and that is normally why I leave out where it happens because it makes no difference, it happens here too,” she says.
Vandenberg said that she was followed in the middle of the day of her desk and was kept at shot by a man.
“He grabbed my bag and I thought I was being robbed,” she says. “My heart broke when I realized that I was not robbed when he grabbed my shoulder and I realized,” Oh, I am taken. ” It was as if everyone’s worst nightmare sinks.
Vandenberg thought she was being abducted and said she had to decide between “a short death or a long death”. Just when she withdrew, another man grabbed the attacker from behind while he shot, and the bullet missed her scary. The moving story has become part of the public profile of Vandenberg. It is even detailed in her bio on the Miss Universe Canada website.
Vandenberg said that her victory is still sinking on Saturday.
Although beauty competitions have received criticism in recent years, she says that the experience was empowerment.
“Miss Universe Canada and Miss Universe and parades in general are some of the largest platforms for empowerment of women in the world,” she says. “Everyone who tries to compete, everyone who wants to become Miss Universe and almost all other titles in that regard must have a cause, a charity that they support and philanthropy they do. At the same time you are surrounded by some of the most accomplished women in our country. So it is a very inspiring and motivation experience.”
