Sooke’s own Kyndra Tucker will be competing in this year’s Miss BC pageant, held June 29 to July 1 in Fort Langley at the Chief Sepass Theatre.
These pageants are not what they used to be. Gone are the skin-shallow bikini parades. According to the Miss BC mission statement, titleholders “are role models for young people” and “are recognized for their talents and accomplishments.”
According the Kyndra, there are even plus-sized contestants. Tucker herself is an advocate of fitness and celebrating the individual beauty of women.
“I really like the fact that they (Miss B.C.) are trying to promote a healthy body image,” says Tucker. She likes the idea that in the pursuit of fitness as a profession, she can be a part of promoting fitness while also promoting “that girls with muscles can be beautiful too.”
Twenty-one year old Tucker is currently working towards achieving her personal trainer certification in B.C., and is about three months away from achieving that standing. Tucker’s passions are divided between personal fitness and hockey. She teaches children from three and older how to skate at the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre, and she is also the head coach of a hockey school. She has refereed games for eight years.
She has experience both as a hockey player and officiating in games. She once attended a officiating camp in Cowichan, where she was the only girl, and recently attended an all-female officiating camp in Kamloops.
In addition to pursuing her personal trainer certification, Tucker is also training for figure and fitness competitions, which “is like body building, but less extreme,” she said. Held throughout the world, she is training for an upcoming competition in Alberta. She eventually wants to continue her education in exercise therapy and training.
Tucker’s mother, Lynda Radcliffe, adds to Tucker’s list of accomplishments: “She is an honour student, has lots of scholarships, she still plays hockey -- she LOVES hockey -- she’s very smart, level headed, she’s been to college (athletic and exercise therapy)”
One of Tucker’s motivations for applying was that Miss BC donates to cancer research. As stated on the MissBC.ca website, “The Miss B.C. Program’s Charity of Choice is Cops for Cancer.”
Tucker recently had a friend die of cancer, and Tucker wanted to be able to act in her friend’s memory.
Tucker will be holding a bottle drive on May 25 on the gravel parking lot at SEAPARC, to raise money for Cops for Cancer from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Alternatively, if you just want to donate under her name, you can go to www.copsforcancerbc.ca/tourdevalley/missbc2013 and click on “Kyndra Tucker” to make a donation on her donations’ page.
Ultimately, Tucker aspires to be a fitness model and to have her own fitness business. She would like to work towards making hockey more accessible to all talented players and not just those who can afford it.
“Wonderful, beautiful and talented, Kyndra has a big heart and wants to help other kids,” sums up her mother. Radcliffe adds in closing that the community of Sooke “has always been supportive for kids growing up in Sooke. It’s a wonderful community to grow up in.”