“I felt sick I was so nervous. I really didn’t expect to be at that point and I honestly still don’t believe it,” she said.
It was Sullivan’s first beauty pageant.
“It was really incredible, all of the girls were amazing and so kind . . . the whole process from start to finish was really empowering.”
Sullivan said being Miss Canterbury was more than just being ‘pretty’, compared to when her grandmother Dianna McFarlane competed in 1958.
“I found out that half of the score is made up of community work, and I thought I was already doing that anyway, and it’s really aligned with me.”
Sullivan grew up in Rolleston and attended Lincoln High School, where she was chair of the Selwyn Youth Council. She now lives in Halswell, but is still heavily involved in Lincoln Rotary.
Sullivan also won best in interview, Miss Charity and Miss Positivity.
As part of the competition, she ran a fashion show and raised $9000 for the I Am Hope charity, which helps youth receive mental health counselling and other support.
“I’m really proud of that and I think it will make a difference for the organisation as well,” she said.
Sullivan was the immediate past president of the Rotary Club of Lincoln from June 2022 to July last year.
“I’d grown up around the club from when I was 11 because my parents joined when we moved to Rolleston and I got taken along to everything and really fell in love with it.
“I joined the club when I was 18 and was involved in a number of different leadership roles when I was in the club,” she said.
Sullivan said she is likely to enter Miss New Zealand next year.
