(Oranjestad)—Tuesday afternoon, through an invitiation of Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes, the five models who have recently modeled and represented Aruba abroad, visited the prime minister for an exciting meeting. The prime minister took this opportunity to chat with each of the models on their experiences in the modeling world and their representation abroad.
Also present was Tanique Chan, who in 2022, represented Aruba in the Dominican Republic, winning the title of Miss Tropical. From here, Tanique went on to represent Aruba again in New York Fashion Week, Los Angeles Fashion Week, and will be participating in the upcoming London Fashion Week this September. Tanique Chan is the first disabled model from Aruba that have walked the runways of New York and Los Angeles Fashion Week.
The models who have recently participating in the Orland Fashion Kids competition were also present. These participants strutted the runway wearing designs by both local and international designers. It was at this modeling competition that Aruba showed how this small island consists of talented models with great potential to break in the international industry. Among the participants were Ciara Winterdaal, who won the title of Baby Top Model; Caithlyne Kock, who won the title of Pree-teen Top Model; Javinnah Besselink, who placed second in the Teen Top Model category and Stacey de Veer, who won the title of Super Top Model.
The prime minister has expressed her profound pride in each of the participating for representing their island country, putting Aruba in the spotlight once again. The prime minister also thanked the director of The Chaz Model and Talent School, Mrs. Chastity Kock-Hodge, for her dedication, patience and love for guiding these children in achieving their dreams to become international models.
Chastity or Chas, as everyone calls her, is not a stranger in the world of modeling. Seeing as modeling was also her passion, she decided from a relatively young age to start giving modeling lessons to young children and teens. After seeing the interest coming from the parents of these children, Chastity decided to branch out a little, introducing dance lesson, followed by offering preparatory lessons for Carnaval Queen. During many years, Chastity work with a passion, and has dedicated herself to the community by presenting spectacular shows. Considering her love for children and the general need to support and guide disabled children, she opened her doors to also include disabled children in her dance and modeling lessons.
Nowadays, The Chaz Modeling & Talent School is a renowned talent school on the island, that not only offers local showcases, but also sends its students to different competition and modeling gigs abroad, which in recent years, have brought back many winning titles. This year, The Chaz Modeling & Talent School is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and will be celebrating this with a magical show in the month of November of this year.
The models who recently participated in the Orland Fashion Kids did a wonderful job, almost taking home every winning title in the competition. “I’m extremely proud of everyone here. A huge congratulations goes to each of you who have represented our tiny island with pride, and I hope to see more from you all in the future. A big thank you to Mrs. Chastity as well for her hard work, dedication and guidance of these children in the world of modeling, singing and dance. I’m very proud of you and your entire team who has made all this possible. Thank you,” the prime minister said to her visitors.
