The See Ya Later Foundation

The See Ya Later Foundation is an amazing foundation. I encourage everyone to check out their website!

Every year they have the Scott Banke Golf Tournament, it's one of their biggest fundraisers of the year, and this year I got to be a part of it! Instead of the Tigard Woods Hole, it was the Miss Oregon Teen hole! They would pay 10$ and get to advance 400 meters, and get a picture with me. In between teams I would hit golf balls and play in golf cart. :) After the tournament there was a dinner and an auction. I was able to assist the auctioneer by holding up the peices we were auctioning off. The best moment of the whole day was after the preacher spoke, everyone let go of the baloons, attached to them were slips asking whoever found them to go onto the website and share. One was found in Washington! In the picture with me is Jake Baker and Karli Olson. 2 of the See Ya Later Foundation Scholorships.

The next day was a magic show featuring Sterling! The World Magic Champion. The SYL Foundation put it on for free for families around McMinnville. The magic show was beyond words! Sterling is my age and he is so skilled its unbelievable! I got to meet him after the show and he is so down to earth and friendly and has a great sense of humor. I almost got away with stealing his life size cut out. :) It was so much fun to help out and get to enjoy his magic!

Parades, Concerts and Judging OH MY!

Wow, I haven't blogged in forever! Looks like I have some catching up to do!

July 24th I was able to participate in the Newberg Old Fashioned Festival Parade. It was my first parade by myslef and it just wasn't the same with out my sister queens! The best part was a boy running along side the car asking if he could be Mr. Oregon. He was only about 10 years old so I told him, "Maybe in 10 years." He replied with, "I'll wait for you!" Hahaha it totally made my day! A special thanks to Elle and her daddy Angelo, he drove me in the parade in his beautiful black comvertible and Elle took pictures.

Later that day I went down to the fair and sat at the See Ya Later Foundation booth, selling Raffle tickets for a red mustang!! The Banke family is amazing, they are some of the nicest people ever. Click on the link above to learn more about the foundation and how you can help!

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The Yamhill County Fair is a huge deal where I come from! This year I was asked to Judge the talent show, the winner got the entry fee for the state fair talent show and a chance to win about a $1,000 dollars! Later that week I got to go back stage and meet Country Music Star Jack Igram! And got introduced on stage before him in front of everyone. It was awesome!

Turkey Rama!!

This year marked the 50th Anniversary of McMinnville's Turkey Rama, an event that my family is always involved with. This year TR was only two days long, so you can imagine I wanted to do anything and everything I could in those two days!

Friday Afternoon I volunteered with two other ladies of the comminuty and called BINGO! Then picked the winning numbers for the cupcake walk, handing out delicious looking cupcakes taht were donated. Following the cupcake walk we held a Hoola Hoop Contest! One girl Hoola Hopped for ten minutes straight!! I presented her with a free hoola hoop and a Hoola Hopp Champion ribbon. From there I headed over to the kid zone and facepainted kids faces! I painted hearts, flowers, and butterflies! The little kids were so cute and I was even able to facepaint Chris' face, she is an amazing women who works for the McMinnville Downtown Association. I was alos interviewed live on KYLC the local radion station with Mary Stern, and amazing lady who stalks me(inside joke, I always run into her!) she is one of the Yamhill County Commisioners and just an all around neat lady!

Saturday, bright and early was the Turkey Trot. I was able to blow the horn for the start of the race, and after the race present awards and emcee the raffle. The fresh fruit that was donated from Harvest Fresh was amazing and all the raffles were also donated by local businesses. I really enjoyed mingling with the runners, some of them travel Oregon and just run different races! How cool is that! I changed back into my blue Volunteer shirt and in the afternoon I was the cashier at the Turkey BBQ where there are turkey dinners, half turkeys and tons of entertainment! I also sold raffle tickets for the 50/50 raffle benifiting the McMinnville Downtown Association and The Chamber of Commerce. I later found out the winner won around $300! Im pretty sure I sold the winnin raffle ;). I went straight back to 3rd street and judged the Lip Sync Contest for the Biggest Turkey Award along with two other wonderful women. I should have known that Chris would throw me on stage to present the awards :) I was honored and not only passed out awards but got to help crown the 2010 Biggest Turkey!!

It was a crazy two days but it was SO much fun, and I felt so honored to be able to play such a part in McMinnville History! I am counting downt the days till next year!

3rd and 4th of July!

Wow! My life has been so crazy that I haven't been able to keep up on my blog! So here is what I have been up to for the past 3 weeks..

July 3rd. My sister Queens and I attended the Hillsboro 3rd of July Parade. Before the parade started we walked around checking out everyones floats and ran into a radio crew that interviewed us live! I wasn't even nervous! We had so much fun during the parade, even though we ran out of candy :S. After the parade, which was HUGE we walked around and even took pictures with some Political Candidates as well as the Rose Festival Queen!

The 4th of July we headed over to St. Paul for the parade! It was a shorter parade, but with just as many people! We made sure this time we didnt run out of candy! There was a judging on our floats and we were honored with the award of Best Court! How awesome is that!? Before the parade we made sure to take pictures with all the other courts, including the rodeo queens who were just the nicest girls around! We even got pictures with the St. Paul Football Team who won their second State Championship! What a great weekend!

Every year my family and I attend Lions Club Annual Drive-In Fly-In Pancake feed, this year I was able to volunteer thanks to my good family friends Steve and Penney Smith. From 7-11 I sat at the table and passed out ballots for Best Car and Best Airplane, while the gentlemen whose name I cannot remember for the life of me handled peoples money. Of course when my family arrived I took a break and enjoyed the hot pancakes, eggs, ham, and orange juice. After serving around 550 people I decided to walk around and check out all the cool cars and airplanes so that I myself could vote. The weather was beautiful and they were offering glider rides as well as helicopter rides. The only problem was they were one person rides and I could not get up the neres to go by myslef. lol. It was a great morning and I cannot wait again for next year! The President of Lions Club even asked me to come and speak to them during a meeting in July! Keep posted!

Last Saturday night Ginger Williams invited me to be the judge at the first Annual Trash N2 Fashion Fundraiser! Anyone could submit an outfit, made out of recyclable goods such as newspaper, umbrellas, even a cat food bag! The main event was a fundraiser for the 3 Biggest Turkey Contestants, they raised money for Homeword Bound, Henderson House, and McMinville Cancer Center. I had a blast judging with Grace, a sales associate at my mom's friend store, Accesory Appeal, who has been a sponsor for me in NAM, and The owner of Pink Berry, a very cute boutique on 3rd street. After we judged the competiton, which was very challenging, there were so many great piecces, I was able to present the awards! I was a littler nervous because I didn't know I was presenting till about 10 minutes before, but at the same time I felt very comfortable on stage. Of course after the event was over there were lots of photos taken. Also, Harvest Fresh catered the event, and let me tell you, their strawberry lemonade, is to die for! I had about 6 glasses. :) They ran an article about Trash N2 Fashion in the News-Register, and my picture is even on the front page, well, the back of my head and sash is. lol. :) Check out the story online here.

Queen Sleepover!

When I was younger I used to love sleepovers, as I have gotten older and become so busy, sleepovers were the last thing on my mind. When Mandy, the Miss queen suggested that we had a Queen sleepover, I was so excited! I can't remember my last sleepover. All the girls got together at Mandy's boyfriend apartment (he wasn't there, they just moved in and no one even lives there yet) even Autum the princess queen who lives the farthest away was able to attend! The only queen that was not able to attend was Sophia, she had a recital that night. Even though Mandy and I were both sick, Mandy was very ill and slept alot, I felt so bad for her, we still had a good time! We watched movies, ate amazing food, played board games, and made tee-shirts! Autum was the life of the party, it was the first time we got to meet her, and we all love her so much! Alison, the pre-teen queen is allergic to lactose, gluten and i cant remember what the other one is. Basically, she has a lot of restrictions, so she brought her own food, and cupcakes that were gluten and lactose free, they turned out to be better than regular cupcakes! Dejah, the Jr. Teen, earned the name as the terminator, because she terminates all the food. I dont know where that girl even puts it! We stayed up till 1 and Allison and i were up at 7! I had such a great time, I wish I was feeling better, and Mandy hadn't been so sick, we felt horrible we couldn't do anything. I can't wait for the next sleepover, hopefully with all the girls! What a great night :)

Yesterday was an amazing day! I got to finally hang out with my new sister queens, Sophia, Alison, Dejah, and Mandy, the only one missing was Autumn, the princess queen. The Jr. Teen cover girl also joined us for a great time at the Sheridan Days carnival! I'm originally from McMinnville and my parents still live there but I attended Sheridan High School. I drove 30 miles everyday just to go to school there, I loved it! I graduated from SHS in 2009, and was given the opportunity to participate in the fair, how could I turn that down!? We all met early and took a ton of pictures! (moms will be moms) and enjoyed the carnival. We even got to meet and take a picture with Mary Starrett! We ate krispy kremes, drank strawberry lemonade, and even got friendship bracelets!! Then we went to the rides, Dejah the Jr. Teen Queen and Tabitha the Jr.Teen Covergirl went on the Ring of Fire! How they held down the Krispy Kremes is still a mystery! Sophia the Jr. Preteen Queen and I climbed up and went down the super slide! I'm afraid of heights so I was a little scared, and Sophia made fun of me because she is 9 and fearless! lol. I love that little girl. During the parade it was so much fun waving and seeing people I knew. My sister queens are hilarious and so full of energy! We were told we couldn't throw candy so we didn't bring any but people threw it anyway so we felt bad when we didn't have any to pass out. I think about 6 little boys asked us for our numbers, and about 30 people asked why there is so many Miss Oregon, we had to explain age divisions. haha. All in all it was such a great experience! I cant wait to for further appearances with my sister queens, I love them so much already!!

Story time! Before pageant weekend, I told my friend Angela (Elle) that if I won I would love it if she would take my promotion pictures. She excitedly agreed! After I won I could not wait to shoot with her. I have seen some of her pictures on Flickr and she is just sooooo talented! So on Friday, after class we went to her house where we got ready, loaded the car with my 30 outfits and 10 pairs of shoes (hey, im a girl, what can you do?) we headed up to Pittock Mansion in Portland and started shooting away! 4 outfits, 300 pictures and tons of congratlations for random strangers later and now I have some of the most amazing pictures of me in my cronwn and banner. I have uploaded one of them, and heres the link to go to her Flickr site and check them out! She is so amazingly talented and she can do your pictures too! I hope you enjoy them! :)

Last weekend I was given the oppertunity to meet the the Yamhill County Board of Commisioners. I was so nervous, but what a great group of ladies! They were so sweet, and very down to earth! Here is a picture from that day. You can see more on my facebook. If you ever see them anywhere, go say hi! They are some of the neatest ladies you will ever meet!

I am your new 2010-2011 National American Miss Oregon Teen

May 28th-31st was one of the most amazing weekends ever. I still cant believe I was crowned Miss Oregon Teen. I was also awarded 1st Runner up Casual Wear, Actress winner, 1st runner up Miss Personality, and Best Resume! I cannot wait to start really getting busy with appearances, activities and preparing for Nationals in DISNEYLAND! Where I have never been! I have made this blog so that everyone can follow my year, plus blogging is the cool thing to do. Lol. Stayed tuned for pictures, post, and who knows what else on my new blog!