{"id":92720,"date":"2025-05-22T13:29:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T17:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=92720"},"modified":"2025-05-22T13:29:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T17:29:44","slug":"unleashing-change-hard-work-pays-off-for-pageant-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/22\/unleashing-change-hard-work-pays-off-for-pageant-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Unleashing Change&#8217;: Hard work pays off for pageant winner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com COCHRANE &#8211; For Sydney Echum, pageants have never just been about the sash and crown, they\u2019ve been a way to speak up and champion causes close to her heart. The 16-year-old from Moose Factory, now living in Cochrane, was crowned Teen Regional Canada 2025 at a competition held at Coll\u00e8ge Bor\u00e9al in Sudbury over the weekend. \u201cIt felt so good,\u201d Echum told TimminsToday. \u201cLike all the work that I\u2019ve done paid off. I competed last year and I got third runner-up, and I knew that I wanted to go back right away. So putting in that hard work really made it feel worth it.\u201d Echum is no stranger to the spotlight. She was crowned Miss Chimo 2024. The pageants, she said, have helped&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F05%2F22%2Funleashing-change-hard-work-pays-off-for-pageant-winner%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com COCHRANE &#8211; For Sydney Echum, pageants have never just been about the sash and crown, they\u2019ve been a way to speak up and champion causes close to her heart. The 16-year-old from Moose Factory, now living in Cochrane, was crowned Teen Regional Canada 2025 at a competition held at Coll\u00e8ge Bor\u00e9al in Sudbury over the weekend. \u201cIt felt so good,\u201d Echum told TimminsToday. \u201cLike all the work that I\u2019ve done paid off. I competed last year and I got third runner-up, and I knew that I wanted to go back right away. So putting in that hard work really made it feel worth it.\u201d Echum is no stranger to the spotlight. She was crowned Miss Chimo 2024. The pageants, she said, have helped... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F05%2F22%2Funleashing-change-hard-work-pays-off-for-pageant-winner%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Unleashing Change&#039;: Hard work pays off for pageant winner - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/22\/unleashing-change-hard-work-pays-off-for-pageant-winner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Unleashing Change&#039;: Hard work pays off for pageant winner - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com COCHRANE &#8211; For Sydney Echum, pageants have never just been about the sash and crown, they\u2019ve been a way to speak up and champion causes close to her heart. The 16-year-old from Moose Factory, now living in Cochrane, was crowned Teen Regional Canada 2025 at a competition held at Coll\u00e8ge Bor\u00e9al in Sudbury over the weekend. \u201cIt felt so good,\u201d Echum told TimminsToday. \u201cLike all the work that I\u2019ve done paid off. I competed last year and I got third runner-up, and I knew that I wanted to go back right away. So putting in that hard work really made it feel worth it.\u201d Echum is no stranger to the spotlight. She was crowned Miss Chimo 2024. 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