Miss Long Beach 2011 Monique Villa
The fundraising dinner will be held at K.C. Branaghan’s, 5734 E. Second St., in Naples from 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday, June 26. The Irish eatery has offered to donate 20 percent of all purchases made by patrons who mention “Miss California USA” to their servers during that time frame. The funds will be used to cover the sponsorship fee that Villa must pay in order to participate in the pageant, which is set for November.
All contestants in the pageant must pay a sponsorship fee. Miss California USA states on its website that contestants should aim to obtain as many sponsorships as possible and urges contestants to cover 100 percent of the sponsorship fee with donations sought from family, friends and businesses in their respective areas.
Villa was crowned as Miss Long Beach 2011 last November.
A humanities and arts student at UC Irvine, Villa will be receiving her bachelor’s degree this December in the field of visual media studies. While completing her final year of college, she volunteers at 89.9FM KCRW in Santa Monica and FILTER Magazine in Los Angeles working in productions and events.
She completed a full-time internship at the TOMS Shoes Headquarters in Santa Monica in 2008, where she worked in marketing and finance.
“The energy of the TOMS staff working collectively in the spirit of giving back was the single most influential experience of my life,” Villa said in a statement. “Working alongside such inspirational people to promote a philanthropic business model was something I knew I must dedicate my life’s work to.”
This past December Monique started Project Give-A-Book, a giving initiative encouraging literacy for children in need by collecting brand new books from supportive community members.
As Miss Long Beach 2011 she has made appearances at citywide literacy nights, beach cleanups, parades and, more recently, a JetBlue press conference hosted at Long Beach Airport to celebrate the launching of the airline’s seasonal service to Alaska.
In her free time she enjoys traveling, attending concerts and watching classic movies.
Additional information on Villa and can be found by visiting Monique4MissCA.Tumblr.com or her Facebook fan page, “Monique Villa for Miss California USA 2012,”.