Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve. - Marianne Williamson

March Madness has multiple meanings in my life right now…. In addition to a slightly unsuccessful basketball bracket, the busy days are racing by faster than I can say Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

First of all, let me extend my congratulations to the newest additions to the Miss Washington Class of 2009; Miss Yakima County, - Anita Trujillo, Miss Pierce County – Jackie Mendez, Miss Whatcom County – Chandler Batiste, and Miss Lewis County – Hanna Ash. Four local pageants completed this month, and three more young women to crown this weekend – March is a pageant-filled month!

I’ve been working daily on our upcoming fundraiser, the Miracle Bowl for Kids, and I am excited to introduce our host bowling alley sponsor, Cascade Lanes of Renton Washington! The management and staff at Cascade have been incredibly kind and we are so fortunate to have their support! A special thank you to Jeanne Murphy of Cascade Lanes for your effort and enthusiasm for this event – we so appreciate you! The Miracle Bowl for Kids is just around the corner – please visit our website at http://www.miraclebowl.com/ to learn more about the event and register your team online today!

I would also like to thank the Women’s Republican Guild for having me at their most recent meeting to present on the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization and the Miracle Bowl for Kids. It was a very special honor to be surrounded by so many individuals who volunteer their time daily to contribute to society in a positive way. Each and every one of you is a fabulous role model and I am grateful for your presence in our communities and state!

Part of the prize package that I received when I won the title of Miss Washington 2008 was a lovely mink coat sponsored by Dale and Dawn Marr of the American Legend Cooperative. Our organization is fortunate to have this annual sponsor, and I feel especially blessed to have had the opportunity to build a relationship with the Marr’s. I attended an event at the American Legend Cooperative in Seattle with the Marr’s and learned more than I ever knew there was to learn about the industry. Thank you so much to the Marr family for sharing a very special day with me, and for your invaluable friendship!

I am so grateful for the opportunities I have to reach out to communities around our state and promote the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization. One thing that comes up often in my conversations with others is that our organization is run completely by volunteers. Those of us who have been involved with the organization sometimes forget what that means – how significant it is that everything that happens, all the scholarships that are awarded and all the volunteer service that is conducted is as a result of a 100% volunteer effort. That is incredible – and most people are unaware of that very unique characteristic of the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization. In addition, I have the opportunity to witness the very special commitment of volunteers around our state for an array of causes, organizations, and projects and I am repeatedly overwhelmed at how it is truly a part of human nature to possess a natural tendency to give. I had the opportunity to celebrate the volunteer efforts of many individuals in my community recently at the Thurston County Volunteer of the Year Awards Banquet. It was quite an honor to be among so many giving, community minded individuals and was incredibly inspiring. It means so much to me and I just want to say thank you to all of those who choose to volunteer in one way or another, for positively impacting lives and for providing the inspiration for each of us to contribute in our own way to our communities.

Speaking of volunteers, it’s really true that you can make a difference at any age or stage of your life. I was invited to speak and present awards to several scout troops and was amazed at all of the accomplishments of these young achievers! The scouts set personal goals to emphasize learning and growth, and at the same time commit themselves to community betterment. This is an organization that emphasizes the importance of continuing that service through all stages of your life, and it was a special privilege to be among so many accomplished and caring individuals. Thank you to Venture Crew 163 for having me at your event!

Thank you so much to the Washington State House of Representatives for inviting me to spend the morning speaking to our elected officials about The Miss Washington Scholarship Organization and my platform partners. Representatives Tom Campbell and Jim McCune spoke on behalf of the House to honor my volunteer service work as well as the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization, and proposed Resolution No. 2009-4626 which was passed on March 23rd, 2009. It has been a privilege to bring our organization to the attention of our government at the state capital a number of times this year, and I am so thankful to our representatives for taking the time to honor the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization!

It was a week ago that we officially welcomed Spring to the state of Washington - and I will end this post as several inches of snow accumulate outside my house.. Oh the wonders of our beautiful Washington state!

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oh how the past two weeks have flown by! There is so much in the works as we prepare for Spring Forum and for the Miracle Bowl for Kids, and my days have been filled with fast-paced excitement!

One of my favorite places in the world is Bellingham, Washington, where I went to college at Western Washington University. Disregarding my obvious bias, I truly believe Bellingham is one of the most beautiful places in our state and I cherish every opportunity I have to spend time there. I had the special privilege of returning for two very exciting events, as well as numerous radio and newspaper interviews.

The Miss Whatcom County Silent Auction and Talent Preview was a blast like always, and brought back so many memories of my experiences as a contestant in the Miss Whatcom County program as well as my year of service to the Bellingham community as Miss Whatcom County 2006. I was invited to co-emcee the event with our current Miss Whatcom County, Zandra Dennis and we could not have had a more enjoyable time! Thank you so much Carol Starcher, my friend and local director for inviting me back to my ‘home away from home’ and to the entire Whatcom County Crew of volunteers for all of the effort that went into creating a lovely event! http://www.misswhatcomcounty.org/

I spent the following day at the Byron Street IHOP in Bellingham promoting the national platform of the Miss America Organization – Children’s Miracle Network! February 24th is National Pancake Day – A day that IHOP restaurants all over the country dedicate themselves to raising necessary funds for Children’s Miracle Network. With IHOP’s enthusiastic support, we were able to raise over $1,300,000 across the country for this incredible cause – all in a day’s work! Thank you so much to Aysa, owner of Bellingham IHOP, to Kelly, Millie and all of the Byron Street staff for having me at this very successful event. I felt so welcomed at your business and honored to be among such a dynamic group of people! It was purely a joy to spend the day making and serving pancakes to our guests, talking with customers about our mission, and promoting Children’s Miracle Network with tasty food in hand! http://www.ihoppancakeday.com/
One of my valued sponsors, Weddings with Joy, has made this year as Miss Washington particularly special for me. They make each and every event unique for me by providing dresses for me to wear to all of my pageants and appearances. We celebrated the Grand Opening of Proms by Weddings with Joy, a new location specializing in Prom and Pageant gowns on Saturday, February 28th! I was thrilled to see a number of local titleholders in attendance, and Angela, owner of Weddings with Joy was kind enough to let each and every one of us borrow dresses to wear to the Miss Gray’s Harbor Pageant. Weddings with Joy has been a huge support of the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization as an official sponsor and I would strongly encourage you to visit them for your wedding, prom, or pageant needs! Thanks so much once again to Angela at Weddings with Joys and your always delightful staff for being so generous and allowing me to take part in this very special event. http://www.weddingswithjoy.com/

I am excited to welcome to the Class of 2009 two of our newest additions to the family, Miss Gray’s Harbor 2009 Karyn Barr and Miss Yakima County 2009 Anita Trujillo. I had the opportunity to perform and speak at the Miss Gray’s Harbor Pageant and to spend some time with our very special group of Miss Gray’s Harbor Princesses!
More than 45 million readers were in the company of a good book on March 2nd, the National Education Association’s Read Across America Day! In celebration of Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, the NEA hosts events across the nation to celebrate reading and encourage children to read EVERY DAY! As a future educator, this event had very special significance to me and it was an INCREDIBLE honor to be asked to serve as one of two celebrities invited to read to children at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center. I had the opportunity to meet over 500 children from the Seattle area along side Seattle Seahawks own Walter Jones while sharing our enthusiasm for reading and love for Dr. Seuss!

When I was a senior graduating from Yelm High School, I was blessed to receive scholarship assistance from Dollars for Scholars. This is an organization focused solely on helping local students succeed and research shows that it pays off! Recent studies have shown that college graduates contribute to their communities by leading productive professional lives, while also contributing to society through greater levels of civic engagement, increased volunteerism and a stronger appreciation for diversity. In other words, a college education broadens the horizons and creates well-rounded members of our communities. I am so grateful to this organization for sending me on my way to my first year of college well-equipped and ready to pursue the degree of my dreams! Dollars for Scholars of Yelm hosted its annual auction last weekend, and I was honored to be asked to be the featured speaker for the event. This year’s high school seniors are on their way to successful college careers – we earned over $140,000 in our small community, all to go towards scholarships for these young men and women! Thank you to the Yelm School District and the Dollars for Scholars committee for inviting me to take part in an event that will forever be very dear to my heart.

I would like to take a moment to talk about something that has been on my mind and that I believe is a significant issue facing ALL people today, but especially young women and even more specifically young women who are involved in pageants, modeling, acting, etc. Helping young women maintain a positive self-image is becoming more and more of a challenge in a world that promotes ‘unrealistically thin’ as the ideal. Being physically fit (something that we promote through the Physical Fitness portion of the Miss America competition) does NOT mean being the thinnest girl on the stage – it means living a healthy, active lifestyle and making positive lifestyle choices. Local contestants and titleholders – I would encourage you to take some time to consider what HEALTHY and ‘physically fit’ means for YOU. It is so important that as women we stop comparing ourselves to others and embrace the people we are. Feeling comfortable in your own skin is what creates a radiance and inner beauty that shines from the heart and THAT is what people notice about you when you walk into a room. As titleholders in the Miss America Organization, we have the unique opportunity to be role models to the children in our communities. It is overwhelming how much children look up to us, and it is crucial that we take that opportunity to provide them with the positive role models and positive examples that they need and deserve. My goal is to be a representative that young women can relate to, not as the unrealistic ideal, but as an everyday young woman with personal goals and aspirations – and I would encourage you to strive to do the same in your very own way. People deserve to have role models who are LIKE them, rather than role models who make them feel pressured to strive to be something different than what they are. My hope in delivering this message is to ask anyone who is reading this to determine your own ideal for yourself – do not let the media or anyone else make you feel like you have to be anything other than what you are.

We have another very busy couple of weeks coming up as we crown the last group of our incoming Miss Washington 2009 contestants, and in the meantime please stay tuned for information about the upcoming Miracle Bowl for Kids!