Press Release
Multicultural Pageant in Dublin Combines Cultural Celebration with Drug-Education Initiative
First Miss & Mrs Cross Continent gathering brings together 24 contestants from seven nations and an audience of 450 at the Church of Scientology & Community Centre in Ireland
Brussels, Belgium, 16th Jul 2026— Twenty-four contestants representing seven nations brought fashion, cultural traditions and messages of social responsibility to the first edition of the Miss & Mrs Cross Continent pageant, held on 5 July at the Church of Scientology & Community Centre of Dublin, hosted by Diana Stahl and Asia Kuzma.

The multicultural programme welcomed approximately 450 guests for an afternoon organised around the theme of “beauty and purpose.” Alongside the competition itself, contestants and visitors took part in drug-education activities intended to encourage informed choices and community participation in prevention.
The pageant was sponsored by Broccoli Care Ltd. and organised by Miss & Mrs Cross Continent Events Ltd. in collaboration with The Truth About Drugs Ireland. Contestants presented aspects of their national and personal backgrounds through fashion, artistic performances and individual messages concerning leadership, responsibility and positive change.
The Mayor of South Dublin, Councillor Francis Timmons, addressed the audience and spoke about the value of combining cultural inclusion with preventive education.
“Today’s initiative is an important step in bringing communities together while promoting education and prevention,” Mayor Timmons said. “I was particularly impressed to learn that the contestants embraced The Truth About Drugs campaign as part of their preparation for the pageant. Their willingness to learn and help educate others demonstrates how positive leadership can make a real difference in building healthier, stronger communities.”
The participation of contestants from different cultural backgrounds reflected the increasingly diverse character of communities across Dublin. While the pageant provided a platform for personal achievement and creative expression, organisers also incorporated an educational component intended to give the participants a subject of wider social relevance to examine and communicate.
Drug education before the stage programme
The afternoon began with guided tours of a Truth About Drugs exhibition located at the Church of Scientology & Community Centre. Visitors were introduced to information concerning commonly abused substances, their short- and long-term effects and the social circumstances in which drug use can begin.
The exhibition also presented the educational booklets, documentary materials and online courses available through The Truth About Drugs programme. The materials are designed for use by individuals, parents, teachers, community organisations and prevention volunteers and are provided without religious content.
Many of the contestants began engaging with the programme before the pageant. Several completed all fourteen online courses, while others studied selected modules covering substances including cannabis, cocaine, synthetic drugs, prescription drugs, alcohol and painkillers.
Their participation formed part of the preparation for the competition rather than a separate presentation added on the day. Organisers said the intention was to encourage contestants to consider how public visibility can be connected with social responsibility and the sharing of factual information.
The Truth About Drugs initiative is conducted internationally by the Foundation for a Drug-Free World and supported by the Church of Scientology and Scientologists. Its educational approach is based on presenting information in accessible language before young people are exposed to pressure to experiment with drugs.
The campaign was inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who wrote that “the single most destructive element present in our present culture is drugs.” The programme developed from the Church’s longstanding involvement in drug-prevention education and is now used in a range of community, school and voluntary settings.
Rather than relying primarily on warnings, the materials explain the composition and effects of different substances and include accounts from people who experienced addiction. The purpose is to give readers sufficient information to evaluate claims they may encounter from peers, advertising, entertainment or illicit drug sellers.
“Bringing drug education into a multicultural gathering gives the subject a human and constructive setting,” said Ivan Arjona, representative of the Church of Scientology to the European Union, OSCE, Council of Europe and the United Nations.
“The contestants came from different nations and professional and cultural backgrounds, yet they shared a willingness to become better informed and to use their influence responsibly,” Arjona added. “This reflects values that are central to European community life: human dignity, personal responsibility, prevention and cooperation across cultures. Social leadership is not defined only by visibility, but by what a person chooses to communicate and contribute.”
Cultural traditions represented in Dublin
Following the exhibition tours, guests moved to the auditorium for the main pageant programme. The contestants appeared in a series of presentations reflecting their individual interests, abilities and national traditions.
The programme also included performances by Scoil Rince Ní Aogáin, led by Denise Egan, presenting the tradition of Irish dance. The Mudra School of Indian Classical Dance contributed performances drawn from Indian artistic traditions, while dancers from the Indonesian Irish Association presented traditional Indonesian culture.
The combination of Irish, Indian, Indonesian and other international contributions placed cultural exchange at the centre of the afternoon. For members of Dublin’s migrant communities, the gathering offered an opportunity to present traditions maintained within families and community associations while participating in a shared public programme.
The presentations were followed by the announcement of winners in several categories. The principal title of Miss Cross Continent 2026 was awarded to Niveditha Vudayagiri, a software engineer who holds a master’s degree in artificial intelligence.
Fortunate Lindokuhle Masina was named first runner-up, and Yuki Yuliatin was selected as second runner-up.
The backgrounds of the finalists illustrated the pageant’s emphasis on achievement beyond physical appearance. Professional development, education, cultural participation and community involvement were presented as relevant aspects of how contestants understood leadership.
The organisers said the first edition was conceived as a meeting point between the pageant sector and community initiatives. The cooperation with The Truth About Drugs Ireland gave contestants a practical educational subject to study and allowed visitors to examine the materials directly during the exhibition tours.
The Church of Scientology & Community Centre of Dublin opened in 2017 as a religious and community facility serving Scientologists and the wider public. Its premises include an auditorium, meeting rooms, sports and recreational facilities and spaces used by local organisations for educational, cultural and charitable programmes.
The Centre has hosted activities involving neighbourhood associations, cultural communities, voluntary groups, educators and public representatives. Its community work includes support for drug prevention, human-rights education, moral education and volunteer initiatives.
The Church of Scientology was founded by author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. In addition to the religious services provided to their congregations, Churches of Scientology and their members support secular programmes addressing drug prevention, human-rights awareness, community values and disaster response.
The Miss & Mrs Cross Continent programme concluded with participants and guests recognising education, cooperation and informed decision-making as practical elements in reducing the harm associated with drug abuse. The afternoon connected those subjects with cultural expression and the role of individuals who use public platforms to address issues affecting their communities.
About the Church of Scientology in Europe
The Church of Scientology, its missions, groups and members are present throughout the European continent. Its recognition as a charitable and bona fide religion continues to grow, reflecting its established religious presence and its commitment to education, prevention, freedom of religion or belief and community betterment. Through cooperation with civil-society organisations and local communities, Scientologists support initiatives intended to address social concerns through practical information and voluntary service.
Media Contact
Organization: European Office Church of Scientology for Public Affairs and Human Rights
Contact Person: Ivan Arjona
Website: https://www.scientologyeurope.org
Email: Send Email
Address:Boulevard de Waterloo 103
City: Brussels
State: Brussels
Country:Belgium
Release id:47183
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Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
Press Release
ThinkMarkets Expands Weekend Trading Offering, Launches Weekend League Competition
London, United Kingdom, September 1st, 2026, FinanceWire
ThinkMarkets, a global multi-asset CFD broker, today confirmed the launch of Weekend League, a client trading competition built around its weekend trading offering, with further expansion of that offering in development.
What’s tradable at the weekend
ThinkMarkets clients currently have access to a growing range of markets that trade when traditional exchanges are closed:
- 24/7 Gold (XAUUSD247)
- 24/7 Silver (XAGUSD247)
- 24/7 Indices, including Nasdaq 100 (NAS247) and US S&P 500 (SPX247)
- 24/7 Commodities, including Brent Crude (BRENT247) and US Crude (WTI247)
- Cryptocurrencies, continuously priced through the weekend
- Synthetic indices, including the recently added WEEKEND_STORM
Continuous pricing on gold and silver closes the gap between Friday’s close and Sunday’s reopen, during which price-moving news has historically gone unpriced until markets resumed on Monday. Additional weekend-tradable instruments are currently in development, with further announcements to follow.
Weekend League: four weekends, ranked on performance not balance.
Weekend League is a client trading competition running across four consecutive weekends, from 5 to 27 September 2026. Each weekend carries its own prize pool of 2,500 USD, giving participants a new opportunity to compete every week of the competition. Unlike formats that rank by account size, Weekend League ranks participants by percentage return on capital, so performance is what counts, not the size of the account behind it. Participating trades also earn 2x ThinkRewards points, redeemable for cash, so every entrant has something to gain regardless of where they land on the leaderboard. Registration is open now via ThinkPortal.
Executive comment
Commenting on the announcement, Nauman Anees, CEO and co-founder of ThinkMarkets, said:
“Trading has traditionally worked to a Monday-to-Friday clock, but that’s not how our clients live. A lot of them only have the time to trade at the weekend, once work and other commitments ease off, and we don’t think markets should be closed just because the traditional week is. Weekend League is one of the ways we’re making that more exciting for clients who want to trade the weekend, with not only real prizes for the people who perform, but cashback for everyone who participates.”
About ThinkMarkets
ThinkMarkets is a global, multi-regulated online brokerage established in 2010, offering clients quick and easy access to 4,000 CFD instruments across FX, indices, commodities, equities, and more. ThinkMarkets has offices in London, Dubai, Melbourne, and Chicago, along with hubs in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and South Africa. It also operates under several financial licences around the globe and delivers some of the industry’s most recognised trading platforms, including its award-winning platform, ThinkTrader. For more information, visit thinkmarkets.com.
Contact
Global Head of Brand and Marketing
Chantelle Lea
ThinkMarkets
pr@thinkmarkets.com
About Author
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
Press Release
WooSender Announces Open AI Communication Audit for Financial Services Firms
Free Self-Assessment Tool Targets Communication Gaps in Insurance and Advisory Practices
New York, USA, Sep 01, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — WooSender, Inc. has released a new self-assessment framework designed to help financial services firms identify where client communication breaks down before opportunities are lost. The free audit checklist is available immediately and targets the specific pain points faced by insurance agencies, financial advisors, mortgage brokers, and wealth management practices.
The company developed the framework after working with firms that were losing qualified prospects not because of poor marketing, but because of slow or inconsistent follow-up. According to WooSender, many financial practices still rely on manual processes that delay response times by hours or days, creating friction at the exact moment a potential client is ready to move forward.
Why Financial Services Firms Struggle with Lead Follow-Up
Financial products require trust, and trust requires timely communication. When a prospect submits a lead form asking about life insurance, retirement planning, or mortgage refinancing, the window to respond is narrow. WooSender points to research showing that the odds of qualifying a lead drop dramatically after the first five minutes.
Yet many firms still operate without automated acknowledgment systems, rely on staff to manually check CRM platforms, or use generic email sequences that do not account for the nuances of regulated industries. The result is a communication gap that competitors can exploit simply by responding faster.
WooSender’s audit framework asks firms to evaluate their current systems across eight categories: initial response time, multi-channel engagement, appointment booking friction, follow-up cadence, after-hours coverage, conversation continuity, qualification speed, and no-show prevention. Each category includes specific yes-or-no questions that reveal where bottlenecks exist.
Real Results from a Financial Advisory Practice
WooSender worked with Preferred Advisors, a financial services firm that was generating strong inbound interest but struggling to convert leads into scheduled appointments. Before implementing AI-powered communication tools, the firm faced delays in outreach, missed follow-ups, and scheduling inefficiencies that allowed prospects to go cold.
After deploying WooSender’s platform, Preferred Advisors saw measurable improvement. Lead response times dropped from hours to minutes. Appointment booking became automated, reducing the back-and-forth typically required to confirm a meeting. Follow-up sequences ran consistently, ensuring no prospect was forgotten. The firm reported higher conversion rates without increasing advertising spend.
The case demonstrates a principle WooSender emphasizes across industries: most businesses do not need more leads. They need better systems to handle the leads they already have.
What the Audit Reveals
The self-assessment tool is built around common failure points in financial services communication. One question asks whether the firm has a system in place to respond to after-hours inquiries. Another asks if follow-up is triggered automatically or depends on a team member remembering to send it. A third evaluates whether prospects can book appointments without requiring a phone call or email exchange.
Firms that answer “no” to more than three questions are likely losing revenue to competitors with faster, more reliable systems. WooSender designed the audit to surface those gaps without requiring a sales call or software demo. The goal is awareness first, action second.
The framework also addresses compliance and tone. Financial services firms operate under strict regulatory guidelines, and generic automation tools often fail to account for disclosure requirements, privacy rules, or the need for human oversight. WooSender’s approach combines AI-driven speed with compliance-aware workflows, ensuring that automated messages do not create liability.
How Financial Firms Can Use the Audit
WooSender recommends that firms complete the audit as a team exercise. Have front-office staff, advisors, and operations leaders answer the questions separately, then compare results. Discrepancies often reveal where assumptions about the process do not match reality.
Once gaps are identified, firms can prioritize fixes. Some improvements require no new technology. Changing how inbound calls are routed, setting expectations in lead forms, or creating templated follow-up messages can all reduce friction. Other gaps may require automation, AI voice systems, or CRM integration to solve at scale.
The audit is available now at no cost and does not require software purchase or contact information to access. WooSender built it as a public resource for any financial services firm that wants to evaluate its current communication infrastructure.
Why WooSender Focused on Financial Services
WooSender serves clients across multiple industries, including legal, medical, real estate, and home services. Financial services represents a significant portion of that client base, particularly insurance agencies and advisory practices. The company identified a pattern: firms in this space often have strong lead generation but weak lead conversion, not because of product issues, but because of process issues.
Stephen Garbesi, Chief Executive Officer of WooSender, has spoken publicly about the company’s origin. Before building the platform, he and his co-founders ran a marketing agency and saw firsthand how businesses were wasting thousands of dollars on leads that never received timely follow-up. That experience shaped WooSender’s focus on communication infrastructure, not just software features.
What Happens After the Audit
Firms that complete the audit will have a clearer picture of where their communication systems fall short. WooSender offers additional resources for those who want to address the gaps, including case studies, implementation guides, and consultation with the company’s team.
The platform itself provides AI-powered texting, calling, email, and appointment booking tools designed specifically for service-based businesses. It integrates with existing CRM systems and can handle inbound and outbound communication at scale. WooSender also offers voice AI systems that can conduct qualification conversations, answer common questions, and schedule appointments without requiring human intervention.
The company’s mission remains consistent: help businesses turn more leads into opportunities through faster, smarter, and more scalable communication. The audit is one step in that direction.
To read the full interview, visit the website here.
About WooSender, Inc.
WooSender is an AI-powered lead engagement and appointment automation platform based in the United States. The company serves businesses across industries including insurance, mortgage, real estate, legal, medical, solar, roofing, home services, and financial services. WooSender provides multi-channel communication tools, AI voice systems, and follow-up automation designed to help businesses respond faster, improve conversion rates, and scale customer engagement. More information is available at woosender.com.
About Author
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
Press Release
Linda Ellard announces a public commitment to team based specialist care
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Linda Ellard, APRN-CNS, is formalizing a standing practice of looping in specialists early rather than waiting on lab results alone, a commitment drawn from her own hospitalist and infectious disease experience.
A standard built from one hard lesson
Oklahoma, USA, Sep 01, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Linda Ellard, APRN-CNS in Bixby, Oklahoma, is publicly committing to a practice she has followed since early in her career: when a patient’s case is uncertain, she consults other specialists while waiting on lab work instead of letting care sit idle.
Ellard says the standard traces back to a specific night on call. She asked a nurse to phone her back with lab results. The call never came. The patient ended up in surgery the next day.
“I learned to never delay care again,” Ellard said. “Now I consult other specialists while waiting for lab results, so a gap in communication cannot turn into a gap in treatment.”
She is now naming this as a formal part of how she practices, not just a private habit.
What the commitment covers
Ellard’s pledge has a few concrete parts:
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Consulting a specialist as soon as a case looks complicated, rather than waiting for full lab confirmation.
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Treating a missed callback as a trigger to follow up directly, not a reason to wait longer.
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Documenting the reasoning behind early consults so other providers on a case can see the decision, not just the outcome.
This matters most in the settings where she works. As an infectious disease APRN since 2019, Ellard has worked alongside five different infectious disease attending providers, and she says that exposure shaped her sense of when a second opinion should come sooner rather than later. Her background as a hospitalist gave her a broad view of acute and general care, and regular contact with specialists outside her own training.
Why she is making it public
Ellard says patients and their families rarely see the coordination happening behind a diagnosis. Making the standard explicit is meant to give other providers, and patients, a clearer sense of what to expect from her practice.
“Patience and compassion for patients matter, but so does speed when a case turns,” Ellard said. “I want people to know that if something looks off, I am not going to sit on it.”
She also ties the commitment to her current work in wound care, which she has practiced since 2024. Wound cases can turn into infectious concerns quickly, and Ellard says the same early-consult standard applies there as much as it does in her infectious disease and hospitalist work.
How she measures whether it is working
Ellard says she checks herself against peer feedback and her own standards, rather than any single metric. She reviews cases where a consult happened early and asks whether it changed the outcome or just added a step.
“Feedback from peers and staying determined to hit my own goals is how I measure this,” she said. “If a specialist tells me the early call helped, that tells me more than a chart note does.”
She also credits her family as a steady source of motivation behind the discipline it takes to hold a standard like this over years of practice, particularly across roles that also include chronic pain management and addiction treatment, both since 2019.
What comes next
Ellard plans to keep this standard in place across all four areas of her current practice: infectious disease, chronic pain management, addiction treatment, and wound care. She says the goal is not a new program or a new document, but a consistent habit that patients and colleagues can count on regardless of which part of her practice they encounter.
“I try to plan goals in a realistic way and take them one at a time,” Ellard said. “This one is simple. Do not wait when a patient’s case calls for another set of eyes.”
About Linda Ellard
Linda Ellard is an APRN-CNS based in Bixby, Oklahoma. She has worked in infectious disease care since 2019, alongside ongoing practice in chronic pain management, addiction treatment, and wound care. She began her nursing career in Tulsa in 2009, earned her APRN credential by 2017, and holds a BSN and MSN from OU Tulsa.
About Author
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
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