As an English teacher at Hoërskool Noordheuwel, Melissa Nieuwoudt has always had a love for children, and wished to inspire them in whichever way possible.
Setting out to make more of a difference, and not just in her school, Melissa entered the Miss/ Mr/ Mrs Krugersdorp pageant last year to, as she put it, “… use my experience of 17 years as educator and passionate teacher to reach out to students feeling anxious; suicidal; depressed; who have been abused, whether emotionally, physically or verbally; and plant seeds of hope to motivate them never to give up!”

As part of her pageant journey, Melissa needed to show that she had a heart for charity.

I’m involved in helping children deal with suicidal thoughts, and working with abandoned and neglected children. I would also like to get more involved with animal welfare. I worked with the Queen Butterfly Foundation, Purple Street cats as well as Belly2Brain.”

Speaking of her experiences leading up to the gala event she said, “An interesting story was that we had to make a dress from recycled goods and I chose a grass-look dress theme. One of my pet rabbits feasted on it a few days before the gala evening, which left me with two days of utter panic to have it repaired so that I could wear it. That was a highlight I won’t ever forget. Another highlight was that I had an opportunity to meet wonderful people, each so unique in their being and beauty. I not only made new friends, I found a new pageant family.”

In the Ms Krugersdorp category, Melissa received awards as Best Dressed, Public Choice, Best Quarantea and Best Ramp before being crowned Ms Krugersdorp 2021/ 2022 and Miss Krugersdorp Personality 2021/ 2022.

Also read: Krugersdorp/ Randfontein Pageants 2021: The list of winners