The Miss Florida Outstanding Teen Pageant Weekend

Hello All!

Time really does fly! I can't believe it is already the tenth of May! This year has been fling by so quickly.

During the weekend of April 23rd-25th, the Miss Florida Outstanding Teen Pageant took place in Dade City, Florida. My sister, Miss Apopka Foliage Outstanding Teen competed and she did an amazing job. She took my breath away when she came out on stage in her yellow evening dress. She carried herself with so much grace. She was awarded the Scholastic Achievement Award and I am so proud of her! Congratulations to MaryKatherine Fechtel on her outstanding performance and on becoming Miss Florida's Outstanding Teen 2010!

Many of the miss contestants came to support the teens. It was great to reconnect with some of the other veterans and to meet many of the newbies! My Sunshine Princesses came to support my sister as well!

On the morning of April 24th, the day of the Teen Finals, I left Dade City and drove to Apopka to attend the Annual Apopka Arts and Foliage Festival. I gave some opening remarks and got to cut the ribbon with others to start off the festival. It was my first ribbon cutting experience and I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to do it!

The next day, the Florida Sweeps Pageant was held. I attended the pageant with my family. Congratulations to the five beautiful young ladies who won! Below is a photo of my sister and I with the owners of Regalia Magnificent Apparel, David Lang and Carry O'Neal, at the Sweeps Pageant.

College Shadow Day

Hello All!

My my my! What a busy semester this has been for me! I have been volunteering as a Junior Achievement leader and working on preparing for College Shadow Day, which is a big event at the University of Central Florida. Every year, 500 seventh graders visit the campus to get an inside look at the different departments that UCF has to offer. Athletes, professors, and other UCF organizations come out to speak about their experiences at the school as well as the many opportunities that are available for future students. College Shadow Day is an opportunity to inspire these seventh graders to pursue a higher education. It is also a chance for UCF to share with these students the benefits of scholarships and financial aid.

With a team of other people, I was responsible for putting together the lunch for all the the visiting students and volunteers at this event. Throughout the entire semester my team and I set out in search of sponsors and donations to come up with 700 bagged lunches and beverages. This was no easy task! Over a course of three and a half months, our team was successful at providing all College Shadow Day attendees with a sub and chips from Firehouse Subs, a choice of water or juice, and finally Jeremiah's Italian Ice for dessert! Below are a few pictures from the event:

C.A.R.E. Cozies

Hello Friends!

Last night my youth group created C.A.R.E. Cozies. We were joined by my good friend Dave Abbott, a snow bird from Michigan. For a few members of my youth group, it was their first time creating C.A.R.E. Cozies. They had a great time conversing and creating the blankets. We will be delivering them within the next few weeks!

Great News!

A sorority at the University of Florida, Kappa Alpha Theta, invited a local girl scout troupe to come and create C.A.R.E. Cozies at their sorority house. After they created the blankets they delivered them to the Park Meadows Nursing Home in Gainesville, Florida. I will be receiving pictures very soon from one of the members of the sorority and I will post them as soon as I can!

A girl scout troupe in St. Cloud, Florida, also created C.A.R.E. Cozies!

It is so exciting to witness the growth of my C.A.R.E. Cozy project!

Miss America 2010 (Part One)

Hello All!

Oh my goodness! I have so much to share with you! I don't even know where to begin. On January 26th, I left on a plane for Las Vegas to watch Miss America live! The entire trip was absolutely fantastic!

When I arrived at the airport, I ran into Miss Florida's mom , Krissy Todd. We ended up taking a shuttle to the Planet Hollywood, which was the host hotel for Miss America. I was completely taken away with the gigantic posters of Miss America 2009, Katie Stam, that were everywhere in the hotel. I checked in and a few hours later, Jenna Harvey, my roommate from the Sweetheart Pageant and Miss California's first runner up arrived. She was my roomie once again for the week!

That night, I attended the first night of the pageant preliminaries. Miss Florida was to compete in swimsuit and evening wear. Right before the pageant I met Katie Stam's parents. Seeing the theater live and in person made Miss America so much more real to me. I had only ever seen the final pageant on television and being there to watch the preliminaries live was unbelievable. It was exciting to see the girls perform their opening number for the first time. Rachael looked absolutely fabulous! After the show, everyone went to the visitation which is an opportunity for us to meet with the contestants. Rachael and I even had the chance to reenact our Miss Florida moment.

Well, this is all that I have time to blog about for now. I will blog about the rest of my Miss America Experience very soon!

International Night!

Hello Friends!

On January 23rd, I hosted St. Thomas Aquinas School's International Night. Every year, the student's families come to celebrate cultures around the world. Each grade is assigned a country that they are responsible for creating dishes to share with the attendees. Raffle tickets were sold at the event for fun prize baskets that were donated. A Nintendo DS and digital camera were also being raffled off. My sister was also there to help sell raffle tickets and hand out the prizes. We were also able to perform for the people there.

I had a great time "seeing the world."

New Year...Fun Events!

I know I'm late...but HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I am so excited to witness all the wonderful things this year will bring!

This past Saturday, January 9th, my mom, sister, and I attended the Miss Orlando and Miss Orlando's Outstanding Teen Pageant. I was able to reunite with many of last year's Miss Florida contestants. It was so nice to see all of them. I was especially happy to reunite with Jenise! She looked absolutely beautiful and fabulous as always. The pageant was very entertaining! Congratulations to the runners up and winners!

Yesterday, I attended Rachael's send off party along with my mom and sister. The members of the Miss Florida Board, Rachael, and Rachael's family members put together a program. It was very touching and also very motivational! Witnessing how much Rachael has grown as a person over the past few months was amazing. She is truly a remarkable young women. I wish her the best of luck at Miss America!

Miss Apopka and other adventures!

Dear Friends,

I'm sorry that it has been a long time since I have posted any blogs! The end of the school semester definitely took it's toll on me but I will do my best to update you on what has been happening.

The biggest news is that on November 7th, I was crowned the new Miss Apopka! I was crowned by the former Miss Apopka and my good friend, Rikki Klaus. It felt so good to be competing once again! My mom, sister, brother, princesses, and their families were all there! Seeing them in the audience gave me an extra boost of energy!

I sang "Home" from Broadway musical The Wiz, which was the very first song I had ever sang for a Miss Florida preliminary pageant, four years ago! Time really does fly!

Third runner up was Dasha Gonzalez, Second Runner up was Victoria Williams, and First Runner up was Brittany Fornof. Congratulations to all of the girls!

The very next week on the 14th, my sister and I performed at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church's Christmas Bazaar. For the first time, my sister played her guitar while she sang. She has been learning how to play the guitar for some time and I must say, she does a fabulous job! Performing at the bazaar was a lot of fun. I always have a blast when I perform with my sister.

Before you knew it, it was Thanksgiving and I was so happy to be reunited with my entire family!

On December 4th, I made my first official appearance as Miss Apopka! I was a part of the annual Apopka Christmas Parade. I got to ride in a Corvette. I always love participating in parades. It warms my heart when I look out into the crowd and see many smiling faces. My sister got to ride along in the Corvette too! I also got the chance to kiss a camel...who would've thought that you would be able to do that anywhere other than the zoo! Haha