GIRL OF SRI LANKAN ORIGIN
IS CROWNED MISS PHILADELPHIA
By Walter Jayawardhana
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A pretty girl of Sri Lankan origin, Brintha Vasagar, who is more at
home in working in a surgical theatre than walking under television
cameras in a beauty pageant and soon aspiring to become a surgeon has
been crowned Miss Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“Brintha Vasagar doesn't have much use for what she calls "six-inch
heels." As a third-year medical student at Ross University School
of Medicine in Miami, she said she's more at ease in an operating room
than under the glare of pageant spotlights.
“The Hatfield native was named Miss Philadelphia 2008 on Saturday
night, prevailing over 15 other contestants from Philadelphia, Montgomery
and Delaware Counties(in the USA). She won $10,000”, the newspaper
, reported.
The newspaper further said: “Vasagar, 24, is not exactly an old
pro in the pageant world. Unlike many contest queens with a lifetime
of experiences under their one-piece bathing suits, Vasagar competed
in her first pageant in 2005. And after a disappointing run for Miss
District of Columbia in 2006, Vasagar thought she'd never enter another
one.
But tuition bills were mounting at Ross, where she has another year
and a half of school before she graduates. "I thought I could use
a little scholarship money," she said.
With a stunning smile and a commitment to volunteerism, Vasagar wowed
the sold-out crowd and panel of judges at Drexel University's Mandell
Theatre. The raven-haired Vasagar said she has dreamed of becoming a
surgeon since she was 5. "Nobody in my family is a doctor, but
that's what I've always wanted to be," she said. "I like the
'fixing people' aspect of the job."
Before she was accepted to Ross - while still an undergraduate at Georgetown
University - her emergency medical skills were seriously tested during
a trip to Sri Lanka in 2004 to visit the birthplace of her parents.
She only had been there a week when, on Dec. 26, an undersea earthquake
rocked South Asia, triggering the deadliest series of tsunamis in recorded
history.
Floods killed 270,000 in the region. Seventy thousand perished in Sri
Lanka. Stranded in a remote corner of the island nation, Vasagar cut
short her vacation and volunteered to help. "I didn't have any
medical training. There were no doctors on the scene," Vasagar
said. "I did what I could. I worked in the camps."
"It was scary," she said. "There were so many bodies
festering. Mass graves were dug. Nobody knew how bad it really was because
all communications were down." When Vasagar returned to the United
States, she addressed Congress and the United Nations. Senators asked
how they could help.
She organized a gala in Washington and raised $5,000 for tsunami relief.
She sent out an e-mail to friends asking them to donate, and more important,
not to forget what had happened to the people of Sri Lanka.
"It was hard to let go of what I had seen," she said. The
friends relayed the e-mail to other friends. It spread around the world.
A bride-to-be received a copy and asked all her wedding guests to donate
rather than buy wedding presents.
In the end, Vasagar's e-mail was credited by relief workers with raising
almost $500,000.
As Miss Philadelphia, Vasagar hopes to use the power of her crown to
help motivate others to volunteer for worthy causes. When she competes
in the Miss Pennsylvania pageant July 16, she'll run on a platform dubbed
"G.I.V.E.," for "Get Involved, Volunteer in Education."
"When people, especially kids, volunteer, they build their sense
of self-worth," she said. "They become confident, they become
role models, they give back to the community and improve (
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