Beauty queens including the current Miss Tees Valley Mollie Kell are celebrating after helping a local business raise £100,000 for charity.
Envied Events has hit the fundraising milestone for local and national charities through its organisation of beauty contests across the north.
Envied Events organises the Miss Tees Valley, Miss North Yorkshire and Miss West Yorkshire regional finals, as well as the Supermodel England National Competition.
Owner Alexandra Devine, 27, herself a former beauty queen, started the business in 2011 after graduating from the University of Manchester.
The former Egglescliffe School pupil said: “I’m so proud to be able to work with such an inspiring group of young women to celebrate such a fabulous achievement.
“This is a collective effort of more than 200 contestants. When my first competition was staged live in 2012, I never dreamed we could achieve so much for such incredible charities in such a short space of time.”
Beneficiaries of the modelling competitions organised by Alexandra include Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice in Middlesbrough, which has received £42,000, and Butterwick Hospice, which has received nearly £32,000.
A further £29,000 has been donated to Candlelighters Yorkshire’s Children’s Cancer Charity, with smaller amounts going to the Kirkwood Hospice and Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Alexandra added: “Whilst the competitions are about modelling, I think it’s really important that we encourage inner beauty too.
“We put a big emphasis on charity work, working in the local community and the contestants forming positive relationships with each other.
“It’s thanks to all of our competition sponsors, including Miss Tees Valley sponsor Cleveland Centre, that the competitions keep running year after year, enabling us to raise such brilliant amounts for worthy causes”.
Applications are now open for Miss Tees Valley 2018, which will be taking place on August 31 at The Swan Hotel, Bellingham. For more details visit www.missteevalley.co.uk