IF DEBORAH BROOKS is walking in the Pine, St Michael area and she sees any young woman “looking untidy or carrying on and getting on disrespectful” that young woman is sure to be stopped and given an uplifting lecture by Brooks.
Some of them listen, curse and carry on.
Some listen and the next time, they are behaving in the same manner, but Brooks who was born and bred in the Pine, told the MIDWEEK NATION that she was not discouraged.
Dream
This Regent Hill, St Michael resident’s dream is to see the young women from her area position themselves in suitable posts in society.
When she sees them walking past her house, “I want to see them looking presentable and classy”.
“I grow up in the Pine. I am so proud of myself for where I am now. When I was much younger, I wasn’t thinking about doing anything in life for myself. I used to get myself in trouble like going up the road and quarrelling and getting on and fighting with other young girls.
“But then after I started having my children, I said, no, I can’t have my children seeing me getting on like that in the road. I pulled myself together and I started to change my life. I made a life for myself.”
One of the ways the mother of four sons and four grandsons and also “grandchildren from three girls I raised as my own when their mom died” is reaching out to the young girls in the Pine is through the organization of the annual Miss Pinelands and is now Miss St Michael South East Community Pageant.
“I work with the young [women] in the Pine because I want to see them build their self-esteem and respect themselves and to know what they want in life. Life is not always about beauty, it’s about self-esteem and putting yourself together, looking forward to achieving your goals in life. Life is about respecting you.”
Hard work
Reminiscing on special moments of the pageant over the six years it a been a “hit”, this week’s WEDNESDAY WOMAN remarked that it was “lots of hard work to put together but rewarding at the same time”.
She spoke of the transformation some of “my girls went through from participating in the pageant”.
“Some of them are now doing nails and hair. Some of them went on to modelling, participating in other pageants and winning other pageants.
“They finish with the slippers. And let me say, it looks so terrible to see young girls going to work and got on slippers. When you are working, you should got yourself look like a high class person.”
Family
Working with the girls in her area is just one of the ways the 45-year-old is working towards her dream of “seeing one big happy family in the Pine”.
Reflecting on the “all the confusion that used to go on in the Pine in the past, nobody doesn’t look at the people in the Pine”, Brooks felt that some people do not respond to the residents of the Pine. “We have so many talented people in the Pine.”
“That is the reason I would like to see the people in the Pine community come together and support each other,” said Brooks, who has also organized fun days.
“The people need to stop crying down each other. I would like us to stick together and not pull down each other. The minute you decide to do something, there is always somebody out there who would say ‘I would like that to flop and don’t come off’. They do not inspire or support you to do anything,” stressed the organizer of the recently held Pine Carnival.
She added in a strong, passionate voice: “We have to build this community into a stronger one.
“Nobody is going to help us; it is we who live in it have to do it.”
