by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Aug 08/97) - For Inuvik's Andrea Hansen, next week is not just another week. It's packed with adventure and of possibilities, with all the stress that goes along with it.

On Aug. 11, Hansen will stand before a panel of judges and hundreds of onlookers at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Toronto, and try to convince them all that she has what it takes to be Miss Canada International.

Sponsored by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Hansen is running as "Miss Inuvialuit" in the pageant. It's an honor just to be competing, said the soft-spoken 20-year-old, who worked into the night last weekend preparing a speech for the event. Keeping relaxed and confident with just days before taking the stage is a job in itself, she said.

Hansen was expected like other contestants from across the country to spend the week promoting the event, by "doing touristy things," like posing at the CN Tower and the Science Centre, and signing autographs.

"That should be interesting," she said, rolling her eyes. "Me, signing autographs? That's going to be weird. It's just me, after all."

It's also stressful knowing little of what lies ahead, she said. The Miss Canada International pageant recently replaced the Miss Canada Pageant. The new scaled-down format is so new that Hansen said she knows little about the small details that will go on behind the scenes.

How many in the audience? What will the duties of the winner be? Who are the judges? These are questions she as yet has no answers to.

Hansen knows this for sure, however: she will have to give a two-minute speech to judges on a topic of her choice. That speech she was writing last weekend, and may be on one of two topics: either on the beauty and uniqueness of the North, or on health, and how through eating and living well people can prevent poor health later in life.

(The avid runner is considering a career in sports medicine or a related field, having completed her first year of a general arts degree at the University of Victoria.)

Hansen must also perform a four-minute dramatic reading of passages from a Shakespearean play or similar work of Hansen's choice. She must also go through three judging stages, wearing active wear, a cocktail dress and a ball-gown dress. Hansen must also go through interviews with judges before the event begins.

If a finalist, Hansen will also have to give an impromptu response to a question which will be thrown at her by the judges to test her speaking abilities.

The event will not be shown on TV, but cameras will record the action so that TVNC, CBC North or other station might later use the footage for rebroadcast.

"I'm going to go and give it my best shot and see what happens," said Hansen. "It's all for the experience."