Paine College is proud to announce that Paine alumna Anita Winfrey Thompson, Ph.D., will be participating in the Ms. Full-Figured GA Pageant on Sunday, May 19, 2019. This is the first time the 30-year old pageant has been held in Georgia, and Paine is urging alumni and everyone in the community to show their support.

Winfrey Thompson attended Paine College from 1995 to 1999, graduating with a B.A. in sociology. She served as Miss Paine College from 1997-1998 and participated in multiple pageants during her collegiate career.

"I truly enjoyed serving as the representative queen of our esteemed College from 1997-1998," she said, "It was a true honor and meant so very much. We even were chosen as the lead HBCU campus queen photo for the Ebony Magazine queen section in 1998 and I knew then that we, as a Paine College family, could do anything! Paine College totally prepared me for competing as I had the honor of participating in two pageants on our campus while at Paine (Miss Student Support Services and Miss Paine College) and one in Atlanta (The Hall of Fame Pageant), on behalf of the College."

Winfrey Thompson explained her motivation for competing in the Ms. Full-Figured GA Pageant, noting her appreciation for all that the pageant represents. For decades, Ms. Full-Figured pageants have been committed to building women's self-confidence through healthy competition, empowering them to serve their communities and inspire others.

For Winfrey Thompson, that spirit of "giving back" to the community aligns perfectly with her own commitment to helping foster positive change in the world around her. "Participating gives me the opportunity to promote my platform of raising awareness and support for mental health and mental illness issues across our communities," she said. "More attention needs to be paid to this topic. I am extremely passionate about these issues and want to help make a change. I truly feel that we can improve the quality of life and potentially save the lives of so many by dedicating ourselves, as a community, to this cause."

How You Can Support Anita Winfrey Thompson's Candidacy

Winfrey Thompson has already received an outpouring of support for her pageant candidacy and said that she's grateful for her many Paine brothers and sisters who have reached out with words of encouragement and support gifts. "I am very blessed," she said. "I do still need help with paying my pageant fees and other associated costs, however. No amount is too small."

Anyone interested in assisting her candidacy can do so with direct assistance or by purchasing tickets to the pageant. Contestants are required to sell at least 15 tickets by May 13th to meet their pageant obligations. No tickets will be sold at the pageant location on the night of the event, but can be purchased here by clicking on the "Tickets" button and scrolling down to Winfrey Thompson's name. Direct assistance to Winfrey Thompson can be made through Cash App ($AnitaWThompson), Zelle, PayPal, and Venmo. I.D information for those platforms, as well as her postal mailing address, are available upon request. The students and faculty at Paine College encourage all our alumni and members of the community to provide whatever support they can for our alumna's candidacy in this important event, and we all wish her the very best. For more information please visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ms-full-figured-georgia-pageant-tickets-56540411894?ref=eios