Kona Commons Shopping Center is holding an event on Sunday, July 18, for young women who are interested in candidate registration for the UCC Hawaii Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition.
Located outside of the Jeans Warehouse Store in the shopping center, the registration event will be held from 3 to 6 p.m., according to BigIslandPulse.com.
The competition is scheduled to take place on Friday, Nov. 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Courtyard by Marriott King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel.
To qualify for the competition, candidates are required to be female, ages 17 to 25 as of Dec. 31, 2022, never married or given birth to a child, a U.S. citizen and a current or former Hawaii island resident for a minimum of two years, and must meet the character criteria that has been established by the Miss Hawaii/Miss America organization, according to the Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition website.
Scholarships are up for grabs, as well as the chance to participate in the Miss Hawaii and Miss America competitions.
The 50th anniversary of the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival will be held in conjunction with the scholarship competition on Thursday, Nov. 4, through Sunday, Nov. 7, at Courtyard by Marriott King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel.
The Miss Kona Coffee website states that the competition provides young women the opportunity to gain valuable experience while simultaneously developing life skills like mastering interviews, public speaking, communicating with others and proper social interaction.
Finding new interests, creating lifelong friendships, setting and achieving goals, scholarship opportunities and receiving recognition are other reasons young women may choose to register for the Miss Kona Scholarship Competition.
"Hawaii is evolving. As we move into the third decade of the 21st Century, the need to put service over self is stronger than ever," the Miss Kona Coffee website said. "Miss Kona Coffee and Miss Aloha Hawaii embody this sense of community, seeking to uplift the most vulnerable residents of our island home."