My name is Brittany Hackett and I have been a Wagga Wagga girl my whole life. After suffering anxiety and a range of mental health issues for a majority of my life, this is something that I would never have thought twice about being involved in let alone entering – until the day a colleague approached me and asked me if I would take the leap and that was exactly what I did.
In April, all seven entrants were confirmed and got together to meet for a range of personal development sessions. This included, dining etiquette hosted by the wonderful Jamie Shepley, the head chef at The Roundabout Restaurant, who have also come onboard as a Quest sponsor. We all enjoyed a fantastic four course meal, and some really fantastic tips and tricks on how to present ourselves properly at the dinner table.
We were also blessed with Rick Storrier who taught us everything we needed to know about public speaking and speech writing, this was to have us prepared for the 5 minute speech we each had to write and present at our up-coming launch night.
Following this session, we had Casey Wilson from House on the Hill Marketing coach us on how to organise events and we are very grateful that we have Casey Wilson’s knowledge to bounce off for the duration of this quest.
We were then lucky enough to head to the 2AAA FM radio station and were met with a very warm welcome by the lovely, Alan Lean and Marguerite Smith for some much appreciated radio and media training. This was daunting at first, though Alan and Marguerite made it seem easy and fun!
Next on the list was a “dress appropriate” session, held at Ted & Olive boutique. Unfortunately I was out of town for this session and missed out; though I know the rest of the entrants had a superb evening with MWWQ Chair Alex and our Mayoress Jenny Conkey.
Lastly, two nights before our launch night, we had a beauty and hair session. This was held at Lulu & Kit in Fitzmaurice Street. We received a wonderful “up-do style” hair session from the ladies at Lulu & Kit as well as a make-up session from Frances Conroy makeup artistry.
Now we were ready for our first public address – The Launch night, 8th of May 2019.
I am sure I am not just speaking for myself when I say, the moment I stepped in that room, ahead of all of the guests, I was ready to run away and never come back!
To my fellow entrants, Erica, Montanna, Hannah, Hayley, Tegan and Margie, I cannot wait to see what these next few months have in store for us. How special it is to be given this opportunity and to have met you all.
- Brittany Hackett
Miss Wagga Wagga Quest 2020 Entrant