YAHOO NEWS:
Reigning Miss World Alexandria Mills said she considered the Philippines her second home, where the lady from Louisville, Kentucky, found "everyone so inviting."
"When I got to my hotel room, Ms Cory Quirino was there and told me 'welcome back home.' And it really feels like a second home," Mills said in an interview last week at the Inquirer office in Makati City.
Appointed early this year as director of the Miss World Philippines (MWP) franchise, Quirino has organized the first-ever MWP pageant, with Mills crowning the winner in Sunday night's competition at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.
It was Mills' second visit to the Philippines. Earlier this year, the 5'9" American beauty came with first runner-up Emma Wareus of Botswana and Miss World chair and CEO Julia Morley to visit the Philippine General Hospital in Manila and the Tuloy Street Children Foundation in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, in line with the pageant's charity work.
"Everyone has been so inviting, and they open their hearts to me. And I love that! It makes me feel so comfortable," 19-year-old Mills said of her Philippine tour.
"I've not met a single mean person here!" she said. "They don't have to be nice to me. They really don't. But everyone's so sweet. Everyone was so genuine and so kind."
This warmth of the Filipino people was something "I would definitely speak of" when asked about the Philippines, Mills added.
And she wanted Sunday night's pageant winner to do the same. "Teach the people. Teach the (other Miss World) contestants. Get them to come to the Philippines. Tell them of the beautiful things and the people."
Beauty with purpose
The Philippine winner will fly to London to compete with 119 other international delegates in the Miss World pageant which culminates on Nov. 6.
"Miss World is always looking for someone who is beautiful inside and out, someone who really embodies the [competition's slogan] 'Beauty with a Purpose.' That is what the Miss World is all about," Mills explained. "You have to have an open heart to really want to help others and to travel around the world," she added.
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Information Courtesy of Yahoo News / Philippines Daily Inquirer/ ANN
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