For Miss St Mary Festival Queen 2025, Anya Graham, the journey from rural beginnings to wearing the parish crown is one rooted in faith, resilience and purpose.

The 26-year-old grew up as an only child in a single-parent household in Oracabessa. “I was a girl who used to carry a bath pan on my head to the river to wash clothes, and now I’m wearing a crown on my head to encourage young people,” she says in an interview with JIS News. Graham secured the coveted title at the parish coronation held on June 7, 2025, at the Casa Maria Hotel in Port Maria. She describes both her entry and victory in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) St. Mary Festival Queen Competition as “divinely orchestrated”.

“One day I was just asking God what more can I do with my life?” she recalls, noting that not long after, she received a call from a friend encouraging her to enter the competition. “I knew there and then that it was a sign from God,” she says. “God had answered my question as to what more I can do with my life and now I am here standing as the St Mary Festival Queen,” Graham says proudly.

Her victory has given her the platform to make a difference in the lives of young people in the parish, through her flagship project ‘ReCreate St Mary’.

Open to all high schools in the parish, the project challenges students to use their technical skills to produce original works of art and innovation. The creations are left entirely to the imagination of the students and must be their own.

The initiative challenges students to tap into their creativity totransform routine activities into something extraordinary.

“Technical skills…like carpentry, plumbing, electrical installation, visual arts, and other trades are taught in our high schools. But what if these skills could be transformed into something greater? What if they could be used, not only to function, but to create, innovate, and inspire?” Graham asks.

“It’s not just painting but creating a living masterpiece. It’s not just connecting pipes, but designing a functional mini fountain. It’s not just wiring electricity but inventing a unique light source. It’s not just building but engineering something original,” she points out. Graham sees the project as an opportunity to challenge negative social trends such as the popularisation of the ‘dunce and boasy’ culture, by promoting positive values and reshaping the mindset of young people.

“So, I’m trying to change our young people’s mindsets and change their attitudes and encourage them to tap into their abilities to recreate their community, recreate themselves and in extension recreate Jamaica,” she says. The process began on February 25 and will culminate in a public formal auction on April 26.

At that event, students will present their creative pieces and share the stories behind them, while members of the public will bid on the works. Importantly, each participating school will receive donated resources after the event to support selected technical departments.

Graham hopes that the initiative will extend beyond her tenure as queen. “I want it to be an ongoing thing, something that I can look at as a legacy, something that even if I pass away, someone can carry on,” she says, noting her desire for the programme to be adopted islandwide and “hopefully the Caribbean”.

Graham tells JIS News that her drive to contribute to the development of the youth of St Mary “comes from my passion and my love for my country, my passion and my love for my parish, and my passion and love for young people”.

“I love when young people try something for themselves,” she adds. Having worked since she was 15 years old, Graham believes that a strong work ethic and positive mindset are critical to national development. “I believe that if more young persons had this frame of mind, this mindset, then our country would be a lot better,” she says. “So, I just want to [contribute] to developing our nation, starting with this project.” Now, well into her reign, Graham says that the experience has surpassed her expectations.

“Being a queen is a responsibility that I never knew that I could have, and it has been everything and more. It has led me to do things that I could have only dreamt about,” she says. “I never thought that I would be in front of students, being a guest speaker, being there to motivate other people,” she notes.

The graduate of St Mary High School, who has a bachelor’s degree in media and communication from Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, is focused on a career in broadcasting. She aspires to become a television and podcast host.