The first of three children, Shamira was born to Jacqueline Gill and Vernon Card on her mother's first Mother's Day. She was born in Bronx, New York at the Lincoln Hospital just a bit after 5:00 PM. At the tender age of 3 months she traveled with her Grand Aunt from USA to Belmopan City, Belize where she spent her first 3 years being rais...
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The first of three children, Shamira was born to Jacqueline Gill and Vernon Card on her mother's first Mother's Day. She was born in Bronx, New York at the Lincoln Hospital just a bit after 5:00 PM. At the tender age of 3 months she traveled with her Grand Aunt from USA to Belmopan City, Belize where she spent her first 3 years being raised by her great grand mother, Hazel Dewgard. She then moved to Belize City where her parents lived, to start her journey of academics. At Pre-school, YWCA, she learned alot of songs and poems that she would only perform on a chair as her stage if her grandfather was around. That was when it was realized that performing was her joy. When attending Primary school, her mother would teach Poems that she wrote herself to Shamira, who then would perform them at an annual arts festival namely Belize Festival of Arts. She mostly won gold medals for her performances in drama,singing, and dancing with a few silver medals to garnish her collection. Shamira attended St Catherine Academy which was an all girls Catholic school. This high school always had some type of art included in the curriculum. From her first year to her very last year in high school Shamira was in at least one of those clubs along with a sports club/team. This included school band, drama club, basic culinary classes, dance club, Football team, aerobics and calligraphy club. Her entire childhood and teenage years were spent on a stage as her mother would always include her and her brothers in various extra curricular activities. At the age of 19 Shamira joined the local Military Band, Belize Defence Force (BDF) Band where she played in the percussion section. Even though she played in that band for a few years she never forgot her love and passion for acting and performing. At that point she became more serious in writing poetry where her poetic skills were honed at Youth Voices which was a Spoken Word Youth Group. She was one of the original members of this group; however it did not quench that thirst that she had. She started to perform again for a small theatre group where she got a one line part which quickly transformed into a major role. This one time part opened more acting opportunities for her whether it was in theatre or film. Most of these opportunities were ventures of Institute of Creative Arts (ICA), as they are a major arts institution in Belize. Finally she found what she was missing; being in character. She became very involved with youth theatre in Belize and soon became one of the founding members of the country's only Youth Street theatre company, Varandah Taylz Theatre Project. Through this medium her mentor/teacher Joseph Stamp Romero taught her how to stage manage. She immediately grasp the content and became very good at the task. As a result, Varandah Taylz had its own trained stage manger. She was able to do all this, Poetry, acting and stage managing while juggling a 45 hour week job as a supervisor at Transparent BPO and being a mom of 3 beautiful girls. She now carries own her mother's tradition in ensuring that her girls are involved in various art forms as she feels it is instrumental in life.
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