Prizes galore for Baby Competition winners

Andrew Moyo
Leisure Reporter
The Sunday Mail Baby of the Year Competition winners will this Saturday receive their prizes at a ceremony set to be held at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in the capital.
The competition, which has been running since July, will see the victorious babies in the various categories walking or crawling away with cash, shopping vouchers and various goodies. As has become the norm with the annual event; several clowns, jumping castles and kids entertainment will take centre stage.The ceremony starts at 12 noon and will run until late into the afternoon. Despite having many participants, only a few babies were lucky to clinch prizes. In the 0–12 months girls’ category, Anashe James came first while Michelle Murombezdi took second spot and Hailey Kagura was in third position.
For the boys in this age group, Nathaniel Mapingire took the throne, Deitrik Msipa was in the second position and Justin Zhou came third. The 13–24 month category for girls saw Nadine Manzvimbo clinching the top spot followed by Tiffany Rukande who came second with Gianna Tusso at third position.
In the boys category, the first spot was taken by Gary Mumanyi, Tinashe Makovere came second and Anashe Yambira came third.The first prize winners will take home US$650 in cash, a shopping voucher from Jet Baby worth US$500, a V Note smartphone from Astro Mobile, a colour book and a certificate of achievement from The Sunday Mail.Those in second place will receive US$450 in cash, a shopping voucher worth US$300, a colour book and a certificate.
The babies in third position are walking away with US$250 cash, shopping voucher worth US$100, a colour book and a certificate.
The cash prizes are sponsored by The Sunday Mail and Zimpham. Shopping vouchers were made available by Jet Baby while the colour books were provided by Clare Events.
Zimpapers business manager (marketing) Charity Gwata-Chirume thanked all the sponsors who came on board.“We would like to thank our sponsors for the massive support they have given us because if it was not for them, this competition would not have been possible,” Gwata-Chirume said.She said that this year’s competition had been bigger since they managed to get competitors from across the country, thanks to their partnership with Jet.“In previous years, contestants had to submit their pictures only to Zimpapers offices, which meant that people who were in towns where we have offices had the opportunity to participate while those in areas where we are not present could not.
“This time around, parents made use of Jet Stores that are dotted all over the country to submit their babies’ pictures.”