Photoshoot & More

Four weeks ago I had my official Miss Kansas Teen USA photo shoot with my Vanbros management! I got to work with the amazing Will Patterson, the lovely Lisa Proctor, and the wonderful Bryan Wood! They worked so hard to make my photo shoot fun and easy! They are a dream team and made it an experience and a day I will never forget! Lisa is such a great makeup artist and Bryan an awesome hair stylist! I am excited to see how the pictures turned out! Will’s pictures are always wonderful, so I can’t wait to see them! I’m looking forward to working with them all again! Also - I GOT MY RING! Woo Woo! I have been waiting for this sweet ring since the day I won!! Now I finally have it:)

Since my last blog I worked at the Saint Mary’s Soup Kitchen. I started volunteering at St. Mary’s in 7^th grade, and still go there every now and then to help out! The director, Mike, does an awesome job! I got to make food and serve it to the Kansas Citians who come by for their meals. It is always such an awesome experience to see the joy on people’s faces when they get a good meal! My favorite part is to see the groups of people who come together to prepare a meal for those in need. Everyone is so appreciative of the work put into the meals served. I love all the “Thank you” and “God bless you” comments I get! It is just an amazing experience and everyone should at least go down to a soup kitchen and do it once! To get involved with the Saint Mary’s Soup Kitchen of Kansas City call (913) 281-5638 and talk to Mike! It is located at 645 Nebraska Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas  66117! Please go down and volunteer at least once - it is an awesome experience you won’t regret!!

On another note, PLEASE go to this link: http://www.curesearchwalk.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=492731&lis=1&kntae492731=75DABBBEC8D64929ADAEE4DB4E72B721&login=t, and donate to the "Warriors for Ross" team as we participate in the Cure Search Walk for Children’s Cancer! It would mean a lot to me and to so many young people who are fighting cancer!! :) This is a walk that I will be doing with all the other Vanbros titleholders and the Vanbros team on the 21^st of April! We are trying to raise as much money as possible, so please help contribute to our cause! :)

The StandOut group!

Last weekend I went to the StandOut retreat in Roanoke, Virginia. The retreat was hosted by Miss USA 2005 Chelsea Cooley and A.T. Dunn. It was so much fun meeting and hanging out with all of the other girls there! I made so many new friends and it was great to get to know them before Nationals. Chelsea and A.T. taught us so much and treated us to so many fun activities!

                The first day I got to StandOut we went roller skating! What a blast! It was fun to skate around and then play hockey after we got the hang of skating. Not very many of us knew how to skate, but we had a great time learning how to skate and trying not to fall! The next day they woke us up early and we got to go skiing and snowboarding that morning! I haven’t skied in so long, and was very excited to do it again! I even tried snowboarding. After our long morning of hitting the slopes we went back to the camp and did some competitive courses. First I did the hanging rope course, and I was the first one to finish the course in my time of 3:09! Next I climbed a rock wall, and after climbing to the top we got to zip-line all of the way down!J I loved it all! Finally it was time for the last course. It involved climbing up a 40 foot telephone pole, standing on the top, then jumping off and trying to catch a trapeze bar! What a challenge!! I was so eager to do it I volunteered to go first. When I got to the very top, A.T. told me that in all of the years they did this no one who went first out of the group had ever caught the trapeze bar. The pressure was on. They counted down 3...2...1...I jumped…and caught it!! It was so exciting to achieve that!J Later that night after dinner, just us teens got to go to our own bonfire! It was great to get to stay up late and talk to all of the other teens!

                It was an amazing weekend and I was so happy to be a part of it! The last day we were there it ended up snowing! The snow was great except for the fact that it cancelled my flight for that day! So we rescheduled our flights for the next day (Monday). Everything was going fine - we were up in the air and headed home. Then I noticed a sort of whip lash I was getting from the jerking of the plane. They came on the loud speakers and said that we had to go back to Roanoke and land because one of the propellers wasn’t reaching full capacity. That was probably one of the scariest things of my life! We landed safe and sound, but it was definitely a scare. It also postponed our arrival home another day, which was great because it gave me an extra day to spend with my Vanbros sisters. That Tuesday we finally made it back!  I was glad to be home, but already missed all of the new friends I had made!

Here is the website for the StandOut retreat http://www.standoutproductions.net/ J

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow, this has been a jam packed couple of weeks! A two weeks ago I met with Miss Arkansas USA Kelsey Dow and Miss Arkansas Teen USA Amber Mitchell when they came up to Kansas City to meet one of our sponsors! We went to lunch at Fiorella's Jack Stack because they wanted some good KC barbecue. Our lunch lasted a good 3 hours just talking and having a blast. They are such sweet girls and I'm glad I had the chance to talk with them while they were up here! :)

During the past couple of weeks I have met some of my amazing sponsors! I went to see Brent Peterson again to get my hair trimmed. It was great to visit with him again. I also met with Dr. Headley for a dental consultation! Next I went to see my favorite ladies at Sassy Chic! I have a photo shoot tomorrow morning and Sassy Chic was kind enough to let me use some of their beautiful dresses:) Not to mention I received my great package of skin care from Fanie! Thank you to all of my sponsors!! Under this blog I will have websites to locate them!

George!!

with Zeke:)

This weekend I went to see some of my favorite Special Olympics athletes play basketball at Johnson County Community College. I got to watch my friends Zeke, George, and Matt play in a tournament that Johnson County Community College hosted. I met them at the Polar Bear plunge last month! I was so glad to catch up with them after their games. Then later that night I attended my Sweetheart dance, at which I wore a beautiful cocktail dress from my sponsors Sassy Chic! The next day on Sunday, Gentry and I went to the Kansas City Ronald McDonald House to bring lunch to the families staying there! It was great to meet and talk with some of the families there. What an inspiration to see their positive attitudes even though their kids were in the hospital.  Overall the last couple of weeks have been amazing! :)

All of the food we brought!!

At the Ronald McDonald house!

• Brent Peterson - http://www.theenvysalon.com/, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Envy-Salon/77655936697
• Dr. Headley - http://www.kcsmile.com, http://www.facebook.com/#!/RossHeadleyDDS
• Sassy Chic - http://sassychicgowns.com/, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sassy-Chic-Boutique/302626152995?ref=ts
• Fanie - http://www.fanie.com/

Freezin' for a reason!



Before it all started

The Polar Bear Plunge bear!

I volunteered at the Special Olympics' Polar Bear Plunge yesterday. It was so much fun! I arrived at Shawnee Mission Park at about 8:30 in the morning after I had my Starbucks, hahah like always! When I arrived everything was already set up and I met the other people I would be judging with. I judged with 2 young ladies and 2 gentlemen from the Special Olympics' teams! They told me all about the many sports they play and how special this event is for them. The Polar Bear Plunge is the largest fundraiser for Special Olympics in Kansas. This specific event means so much to the thousands of Special Olympics participants, and it was such a cool event to be a part of! The high school kids went first at 10AM! There were many high schools from the area represented at the Polar Bear Plunge, which was awesome! 

The firefighters in the water

The judging panel!

Delta Divas

I was so happy to see so many young kids participating yesterday! There were little kids more than ready to jump in the water! It was great to see the many different costume ideas that people came up with! Raining cats and dogs, princesses, the Big Bad Wolf and the 3 Little Pigs, cops and robbers, stuco gone wild, and Renaissance were just a few! In the end, the Delta Divas were chosen as the winners of the team costume contest! It was a great day and I'm thankful for the opportunity to help with the judging. :) I met some amazing people and made a lot of new friends!!




You can get involved and check out their website at http://www.ksso.org/kansascity.html!!



Fundraising:)

         Yesterday, Gentry and I went to my high school, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and did some fundraising for the Donald Ross Elliott III Foundation. For those who are unfamiliar with that organization, it helps put kids through college who have won their battle with cancer. Donald Ross Elliott III died from a rare form of Leukemia at the age of 3, and was the grandson of one of our staff members at Vanbros. Vanbros then took the Donald Ross Elliott III Foundation as their first official charitable organization.
        

Drawing the winner of the raffle!

At our booth:)

With our winner, Jerry!

Gentry and I decided that we should do some fundraising for it, and chose to do it at my high school's home boys basketball tournament, The Saint's Classic. We set up a little booth outside the gym and sold raffle tickets at $5 a piece. The winner of the raffle received 2 tickets to the Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball game vs. Oklahoma State on February 11th! The tickets were graciously donated to us by Drexel Technologies and Kelly Blueprint! I am so appreciative for their support! The fundraising went great! We ended up raising $411 dollars at the end of two and a half hours! We signed some autographs, took pictures, and raised money for this important cause. It turned out to be a pretty good day! I want to especially thank one great lady, Carol, who bought 27 tickets!! I was blown away by the donation she gave us, it was incredible to say the least! In the end our winner was a gentlemen named Jerry, who now has the tickets to the KU v Oklahoma State game! Congratulations Jerry, and thank you all for the wonderful donations! :)

With Brent!

Then today I got to meet one of our great sponsors, Brent Peterson! It was so nice to get to meet Brent and talk with him about his plans for my hair care leading up to the pageant this summer. I am so excited to work with him!!

Great Weekend

Being Interviewed by the University Daily Kansan

Travis Releford

       





  This weekend was so much fun! It started out on Saturday, when Gentry and I made an appearance at the KU game! It was an absolute blast! We were introduced on the big screen during one of the timeouts! During halftime and after the game we took pictures with so many people who were there. It was so cool to have people come up and ask for pictures with us! After the game a journalist from the University Daily Kansan Newspaper interviewed us about the Miss Kansas and Miss Kansas Teen USA pageants. We told her about the pageant and what we have been doing in our community. Following the interview, we were able to go meet some of the players! I had pictures taken with both Conner Teahan and Travis Releford! It was a really fun night and I am glad that I got the chance to do that, especially since I am planning to attend KU next year!! Oh, and KU won :)





With Tony Bowls:)

      On Sunday I got up at 6:30, got my White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks, and headed over to the Overland Park Convention Center to help check in girls for the first of 3 shows for the Natalie M. Foundation Fashion Show! The shows were a lot of fun! I got up on stage and talked to a room full of people about Vanbros and how they can get involved with the pageants and Donald Ross Elliott III Foundation. I also participated in all 3 shows, modeled some beautiful Tony Bowls dresses and wore some amazing jeans from Svica. I signed some autographs for some of the cutest little girls! It was such a long day, but a wonderful event to be involved in. All of the money raised by ticket sales for the shows will go to schools in the Kansas City area. So many girls came from all over Kansas City to model in the show in support of their schools. Afterwards my mom and I went out to eat at Red Robin with some of the other models in the show! Unfortunately I started to feel like I was coming down with a cold through the day, but I wouldn't trade the weekend for anything! Thank you so much Natalie M. for having me in the show. It was an awesome thing to be part of!! The designer, Tony Bowls, flew in for the event and was there to watch the girls wear his gowns on the runway and gave each girl a rose on stage... at all three shows!! He is such a sweetie and I am so glad I had the opportunity to meet him!

This little girl was adorable!!!



Future Queen??







Vanbros Ladies:)



Anyone who is from the age 14 to 26 should check out www.vanbros.com to sign up for the 2013 Miss Kansas USA and Miss Kansas Teen USA pageant! It could be YOU next year! :)

And I loved the Svica jean. You should definitely check out these jeans, you can find them on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1265507961#!/svicajeans. What cool jeans - the side panels of the jeans can be switched out to change up the look!!



Arkansas Pageant!

This past weekend, Gentry and I traveled down to Arkansas for the Miss Arkansas USA and Miss Arkansas Teen USA pageant! It was a blast! I finally got to meet my Nebraska Teen USA and Miss Oklahoma USA pageant sisters! :) It was great to bond more with the Vanbros girls. The competition was so tough for the Arkansas pageant, I would not want to have been a judge! In the end, the Miss Arkansas USA winner was Kelsey Dow and the Miss Arkansas Teen USA winner was Amber Mitchell! Congratulations to both of them! They did such a great job and will make their state proud! It was a great experience to travel down to Arkansas with Gentry and get to know her better! We are practically sisters now! I am so happy to have such a GREAT and BEAUTIFUL big sis to be there for me! Thanks Gentry, I love you! :) On another note, this Saturday we have an appearance at the at the KU vs. Iowa State basketball game!! How exciting! I am looking forward to that, especially since I am going to KU next year! Then on Sunday I will be busy all day with the Natalie M. fashion show where I'll represent VanBros and talk about the Miss Kansas USA and Miss Kansas Teen USA pageants! I will be there bright and early, so I have to get my White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks on the way of course! If you are in the area come by to watch!!!

XOXO

The Arkansas 2011 Queens!

Kelsey Dow, Miss Arkansas USA 2012!

:)

Thank you to our sponsors, Sassy Chic Boutique, for letting Gentry and

I wear two beautiful Sherri Hills available in the store for purchase! :)

The past week!

The past week was Christmas and New Years, which were both awesome!! In between that time Gentry and I had an interview with Kelly Jones of KCTV5 on the "It's Your Morning" show. It was on KSMO channel 62! If you missed the interview live, under this blog I will post the link to the video for you to see!! :) I hope the New Year Celebrations went great for everyone and that you all stayed safe! I can't believe it's 2012 already! It seems crazy that this year I am going to graduate from high school, compete in Miss Teen USA and start college at the University of Kansas!! Wow, time flies! I hope that everyone fulfills their New Year's resolution and has a great day today!

http://www.kctv5.com/video?clipId=6594417&autostart=true
Too bad this doesn't have our surprise appearance as the weather girls!! haha:)