Pia Wurtzbach just proved once again that she's a true queen for the people. Pia announced her participation in the upcoming Love Gala, revealing that she is auctioning off her beauty pageant memorabilia.
The beauty queen personally made the announcement on her Instagram account. She posted, "We're just a little over a month away from the Love Gala! Sharing some pieces we're auctioning…do you remember these?" Then she listed all the items that will be available at the auction—and believe us when we say that we're so emotional about this too.
Included in the Love Gala's auction list are Pia's silver dress which she wore when she was called as part of the Top 15 during Miss Universe 2015; her pageant sashes (!) during her Binibining Pilipinas and Miss Universe stint; and her journals, which has all her notes as "Candidate #15" as she wrote on IG.
The Love Gala is an event spearheaded by the organization, LoveYourself.ph and the local government of Taguig City. The gala called, "Love Gala, Eternal Elegance: A Night of Timeless Love," aims to gather funds to build the Youth Center for Taguig. The youth center will work towards creating a safe space for people with HIV. Moreover, it aims to provide more access to education, prevention, and treatment of HIV.
Why is Pia Wurtzbach auctioning off her pageant items?
At one glance, of course, the organization that Pia is partnering with for the auction of her pageant items is for a good cause. It's a queenly thing of her to do: to give up some of the most memorable and sentimental items of her career
But her move did not sit right with some pageant fans. One Internet user who seemed to be baffled with the idea, commented on her IG post, "Horrible. Why auction these items? Are they not important to you???"
Pia, being the calm queen that she is, wrote a respectful response to the comment. She admitted that her personal things included in the auction were extremely sentimental to her. Despite that, she thinks that there are other ways to add more meaning to the items and for it to last longer, not just for her core memory, but for others as well.
"Of course, they are! They're actually more sentimental to me than anything im auctioning off...all my thoughts are in those notebooks...all the struggles, the training, the doubts...everything! Letting them go doesn't mean they don't matter to me...THEY DO. But I have a plan to turn them into something more memorable and lasting," Pia replied.
Some pageant fans advised her (and almost pleaded) not to put all her sashes for auction. After all, those are really iconic and memorable keepsakes for any beauty queen out there. But then, Pia responded that she might keep one sash but still not for herself anymore but to be displayed at the Youth Center they're eyeing to build. "I thought about MAYBE keeping 1.. to display at the Youth Center we are building in the future using the proceeds from the auction. Maybe, maybe... let's see."
And then there's another fan who told her that if she could buy the items from the auction, she'd give it back to Pia. That's how precious the items appear to her fans. For Pia, what's meant to happen will happen. She expressed how hard it was for her to let go of her keepsakes, but she was more than ready to do it for a good cause.
"Honestly, this made me tear up a bit. It's not easy but I'm ready. What's meant to happen will happen," she declared.
The Love Gala will be held on December 3, 2024. More details can be found on their Instagram page @loveyourself.ph.
