MOREE was represented by two young ladies at the Miss Country Girl Australia contest in Tamworth.
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The two aspiring models, Kodie Clissold and Samantha McDouall, took part in the event which aims to provide a fun and supporting environment that opens opportunities in many fields to country girls.
Nineteen-year-old Kodie was chosen as a wildcard entrant into the national final to be hosted next year but is still waiting on the news to hear if she makes it through.
“We all made it through to the final and from there one winner was chosen along with three wildcard entrants. Our information will be sent on to other judges and they will decide who to send. It could be all of us, some or none,” she said.
The girls took part in an optional coaching lesson before the competition from founder Katie Jones who sends a positive message to “dream, believe and achieve”.
“She taught us about different poses and how to walk on the catwalk,” Kodie said.
Heats for the competition involved walking on stage and routines as a group and individually before finalists were announced and the process was repeated.
About 12 ‘senior’ competitors and five juniors took part on the day.
“I was a little nervous before but I just practised walking in my heels,” Kodie said.
“This is a hobby of mine and I’m always looking for opportunities to get involved in modelling,” she said. “I love dressing up and I have a whole collection of heels so it’s nice to get them out of the cupboard.”
Kodie always enjoyed dressing up as a child and started to look at competition and parades when she was in Year 8 at St Philomena’s.
“If the opportunity came up I’d consider modelling as a fulltime career but I really love animals too. Working with exotic animals at a zoo is my focus at the moment.”
Kodie had planned to travel to Africa this month but due to the Ebola break has put the trip off until it is safer.
“I still plan to go one day. It’s still on my bucket list,” she said.
“For the moment I’m studying Certificate II in Animal Studies online and next year I hope to enrol in Certificate III in Captive Animals at Taronga Western Plains Zoo so that’s what I hope to do.”
Eighteen-year-old Scots College student, Sammy, also has a goal to work with animals after growing up on the family farm at Moree.
“I decided to enter the Country Girl contest because I wanted to try something different and see if I could get somewhere with modelling,” Sammy said.
She hopes to model in magazines one day.
“I’d like to model peoples’ clothes to help sell them,” she said.