Marla Minavio Cobb, a former Jamestown resident, is competing in the nationwide Fab Over 40 competition. The current voting round ends on Thursday. Submitted Photo.

A former resident of Jamestown is taking part in the nationwide Fab Over 40 competition.

Fab Over 40 is an online competition for women over the age of 40 that celebrates the fact that beauty and elegance have no age limit. The winner receives a two-page spread in New Beauty magazine, $40,000 and a spa-cation in Arizona. The competition also raises money for the National Breast Cancer Association.

Marlo Minavio Cobb grew up in Jamestown and currently lives in Las Vegas. She made it to the top five in her group last time, but only the top woman in each group goes through in the next round which ends on Thursday at 10 p.m.

There are two free votes available each day, or the ability to pay to vote as well.

Cobb entered the competition to see how far she could go and with an important goal in mind. “I thought ‘why not?'” Cobb said. “I wanted to see how far I could go. Also, if I win, 10% of my winnings I will be donating to mental health research.”

Cobb is also looking to help with the large homelessness problem that currently plagues the United States. If she wins, her goal is to be able to donate to places that are working to help eradicate this problem.

“There’s a huge homeless population,” Cobb said. “I always thought that if I ever had the money to be able to donate to something, fighting homelessness would be at the top of my list. I know there are a lot of homeless in Jamestown as well, and I hear it is because of mental health. I want to try and help with what is a huge problem in this country.”Cobb has also previously lived in Southern California for three years, and it was there that she said she realized how big of a problem that homelessness actually was.

“I didn’t see it when we lived there but then we came back for vacation,” Cobb said. “I saw the line of tents and I thought it was a street fair. My husband looked at me and said ‘that’s not a street fair.’ That’s when it really hit me, because I knew it was there, but not like that.”

Cobb said she would also keep some of her winnings for her two grandchildren and to help pay off some debts, but her main focus is to use her influence to help the homeless and with mental health research.

Cobb has also had a dream for a long time of being an actress and in Las Vegas has been pursuing this dream through an acting class — Dean Kreyling Acting Class. She has also performed in The Vagina Monologues on the Las Vegas Strip and has filmed in-house videos for a local hotel. Recently, she was invited to perform at the Beverly Hills Playhouse in January where she will perform a scene that she’s working on in her class.

Though she did not expect to get this far in the Fab Over 40 competition, Cobb said she would definitely do it again, though she thought she would aim to alert her hometown community sooner. With that, she added that she is very grateful for everyone who has voted for her so far.

“I’m just very grateful for those who have rallied behind me and kept voting,” Cobb said. “I had my Facebook friends, people in Vegas, people in Jamestown all telling me that they were voting. I just appreciate it, and send much love to you all. It won’t be forgotten.”

You can vote for Cobb in the Fab Over 40 competition to get her to the next round at https://votefab40.com/2022/marla-minavio-cobb.