Creating a World with more Birthdays

We did it!!! On April 16th, I participated with the Johnson County Relay for Life.

From 7pm to 7am we celebrated cancer survivors and caregivers. 

We remembered loved ones lost. 

We fought back against a disease that takes too much from too many.  

During this event we raised over $26,000 to help fight cancer!!! The theme of the night was to create a world with more birthdays... think about it.
I would like to extend a heartfelt Thank You to all of our awesome 36 teams and almost 350 walkers.  We couldn't have done it without you!
The night was filled with people excited to be at the Relay.  In case you didn't know, the American Cancer Society funds research to help find cures, but they actually do a lot more than that! They are all about saving lives.  They help people stay well by working to prevent cancer or detect it early, when it's most treatable.  They assist in helping people get well and fight back against cancer by working with elected officials to pass laws that defeat cancer and bring communities together to join the fight.  After becoming involved with this event, I have decided to dedicate much of my time to helping the American Cancer Society and spreading the importance of getting involved.  I will be joining the Johnson County Relay for Life Committee next year!

Here are a few photos from the Relay!  Although my adorable teen sister queen had prom the following day, she toughed it out to help raise money to fight cancer.  Pictured below is me and Mattie Elliott, Miss Greater Kansas City Outstanding Teen.  The Relay was held at the Multipurpose building in Warrensburg, MO- a wonderful facility for the walk!

Once I decided that I wanted to be involved with Relay for Life, I contacted the director of JCR4L asking how I could get involved.  He was very excited that Mattie and I were able to attend and he made us as involved as possible! He has us speaking, raising money with pictures, walking the relay, teaching and judging the "queen of the relay", visiting with survivors, announcing all activities and singing the National Anthem..... yes, singing.  When Richard asked if I could sing, I simply said, "I am a dancer, but I can sing." He liked that quote and decided to announce it to everyone!

I hit off the night with the opening ceremonies! 

.......and then, 

The colors were presented.....

and out came the National Anthem! 

Apparently, it didn't sound too bad because since then I have been asked to sing the Alma Mater at the Commencement Ceremonies at UCM! 

After the National Anthem, I dug into the script for the entire night, beginning with introducing the cancer survivors that were present.  Once each survivor had been introduced they started the Relay by completing the first lap.  It was so inspirational and everyone at the Relay clapped throughout the duration of their lap.  It was an honor to meet so many strong cancer survivors.

The night carried on with a lot of fun activities and a lot of friendly faces.

Adorable! She passed out purple roses to all of the cancer survivors.

While at the Relay, each team, or group, tried to raise as much money as possible.  I was asked by the UCM National Society of Collegiate Scholars team (an organization in which I was involved with in college) to be their "$$$ raiser".  To raise money for TEAM NSCS I took pictures and signed autographs... for a price! After an hour with a frozen face, I helped them raise $301.75!! Overall, Team NSCS came in with a bronze medal for the amount of money raised (including their other money raising activities).

Mattie even helped the team by face painting! 

It was not long until the night began to get very interesting.  It was time for the "Queen of the Relay" competition!  Males were picked by their teams to dress up as queens and raise money.  Before we sent the queens out to walk, mingle and play volleyball (in gowns- hilarious) we thought it was essential to teach them how to act like queens.

Back on stage, Mattie and I taught the "ladies" how to pose, walk, wave and even flirt to raise money! In this picture they have already learned how to pose, they've got the stance down! We are now teaching them to wave...

SUCCESS!!! 

Once they had down their proper manners and lady-like fundraising techniques, they were sent out to get donations.  Families, businesses and other walkers gave donations to the queens as they made their way around the Relay and marketed themselves.  Toward the end of the Relay we added up all of their donations and crowned our new Queen of the Relay! 

The night was definitely a success and created memories that I will never forget!

Preparations!!

Miss Missouri week is getting closer and the KC girls will be prepared! We had a blast this Saturday with mock interviews, round table discussions, and the best part, a photo shoot! Our very own photographer, Megan Knott, traveled with us to many different KC landmarks to snap some pictures.  We definitely stopped traffic at the plaza when we posed in the middle of the street!

More to come!! 

The LATE Show

Not the David Letterman Late Show.... but the Warrensburg High School LATE Show! I was the motivational speaker at the event on April 9th.  The LATE Show is a overnight lock-in to help 8th grade girls transition into high school.  When I was an 8th grader, I participated in the Warrensburg LATE Show, but surprisingly, I had more fun this time! 

Mattie Elliott, Miss Greater Kansas City Outstanding Teen, was able to join me! We created a motivational presentation about getting involved in high school and not letting other people change who you are.

During the presentation, I included an activity to show the girls how much they had in common.  They LOVED the activity that I titled, Party in the USA.

After the presentation the girls had a ton of questions.  This event was a great plug for the Miss Missouri Outstanding Teen Organization, many of the girls want to start competing!  Once the questions were answered we were able to have more fun.  The girls were hilarious! We had mini-pageants, talent auditions, runway walks, autograph sessions and much more.  

There were eight different groups of girls and they all got to name their own teams.  We are pictured here with the Groovy Hippees and the Hicktown Hotties.

These are the Spankin' Diva Zebra Hustlas and the Ropin' Ridin' Cowgirls

Crowning a Miss Congeniality

The Pretty Pretty Princesses and the Jungle Jammers

The night was a lot of fun and the girls are ready for high school! A big thank you to Tara Engelhart for organizing such a great event and inviting me to be a part of it.  Tara was my teacher when I was in 8th grade as well and she loved to tell the girls that I played hockey and all other school sports... the girls didn't believe her! 

*Do not let someone else's opinion of you change who you are*

Children's Miracle Network Fundraiser

On April 7th I participated in a Children's Miracle Network fundraiser at Golden Corral in Blue Springs.  The Blue Springs High School football team and I were the "guest servers".  Word spread quickly around Blue Springs and we were able to raise over $500.00 for CMN! 

Pictured with the Blue Springs High School football coach and the Golden Corral Manager, Chuck

The team did a great job serving all of the hungry customers while I greeted people and encouraged them to donate to CMN.

Stopping for a quick picture with some of the guys (they all want tickets to Miss MO)

This is Ile, one of the sweetest people I have ever met! She is the director of Children's Miracle Network in Kansas City.  

Chuck added me to the "Golden Corral Wall of Fame"

The night was definitely a success! Thank you to everyone that came out and donated! 

A simple Thank you

From time to time it is easy to forget about those people who do a lot for us.  Without sponsors, the Miss Missouri Scholarship Organization would suffer.  On Tuesday, April 6th, Kara Adams and I traveled to Mexico to thank our biggest sponsors and visit our Miss Missouri Little Sisters.  I was shocked to see that a simple thank you completely changes people's attitudes about the pageant.  Kara and I met our dorm moms, Momma Pat and Miss Jackie for lunch before hitting the town.  It was great to catch up with them and see all of the wonderful things they have been up to! 

After lunch we went to visit Kayla and Maggie at their schools.  Both girls were very excited to see us and are ready for Miss Missouri week.

When we left the schools we were ready to thank our sponsors! First, we went to Aaron's, they donate a refrigerator to us during Miss Missouri week.  The employees were shocked to see us in their store so we took a lot of pictures with their mascot, Lucky.

After Aaron's, we hit the Mexico Square.  Being there brought back a lot of fun memories from the famous Miss Missouri parades.  Here are a few photos from some of our visits.

The lovely Lana from Merle Norman

We knew that we couldn't leave Mexico without visiting Bruce Oliver at Edward Jones.  He wanted to "pound it" so we taught him how to "explode"! 

The day turned out to be a blast and a huge thank you goes out to all of the Miss Missouri sponsors, we cannot thank you enough for all you do.

Greater Kansas City Day!

This was definitely my favorite appearance up to this point! 

Greater Kansas City Day was Monday, April 5th.  I joined the other Kansas City Celebrities and hit the streets, again! We started the day at 5AM at the Hyatt downtown.  We loaded the trollies and took off to raise money for underprivileged kids to go to camp.  Many children have enjoyed attending the Kansas City Rotary camp; however, there are also many children whose families are unable to afford sending their child to camp.  This was the 23rd year for Greater Kansas City day and it was a huge success! 

I was joined by my sister queen, Lauren Alumbaugh, Miss Greater Kansas City to sell newspapers.  All of the money raised by selling the newspapers went toward sending the kids to camp.

Here I am with the Chief's mascot, KC Wolf

Greater Kansas City Day is always on the same day as the Royal's home opener.  After selling a few newpapers we traveled over to do a few interviews live on air at many radio stations in the area.

Of course, on the way over, some of the Chiefs and Royals got silly on the bus.  This is Thomas Gafford, Chiefs long snapper, crowning himself Mr. Kansas City! 

I cannot forget my bus partner, Walter White!  Walter is a sweetheart!! He was the tight end for the Chiefs and currently serves as a KC Ambassador.

The radio station visits were a lot of fun as well.  I have never seen so many people crammed into one little room.  After a few visits, we decided to break the group up so we didn't overwhelm the listeners.  While one group of the "KC celebrities" were on air, the other group had mini-photo shoots!

One of my favorite Kansas City Celebrities is Bobby Bell, NFL Hall of Famer.  If you have ever met him you would know that he definitely brought a positive outlook, even when the rain ran us off of the streets.  Bobby also wanted to be Mr. Kansas City....

Once the event came to an end a few of the guys invited Lauren and I to breakfast.  I guess we made good impressions on them because they were all very interested in the Miss America Organization!  We dined at the Hyatt with Bobby Bell, Walter White, Al Fitsmorris, WWF's the Brut, and many others.

When we left breakfast, we were invited to the Royals game with all of our new friends.  Unfortunately, the Royals didn't pull out a win, but the game was still a lot of fun!