Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Whew, what a busy semester!  It’s so nice to be home with my family, enjoying a bit of rest.  Here are a few of the highlights from the past few months of blog neglect:

Summer and I each received a pair of these custom-made heels, covered in Swarovski crystals. So amazing! We have such amazing High School and Collegiate America Sponsors!

In October, I had the opportunity to judge the 2^nd Annual Central Maine Pajama Pageant. Over 100 girls participated, and hundreds of pairs of pajamas and books were gathered for children staying in local domestic abuse shelters. It was a pleasure to be a part of such a meaningful and successful event!

The filming of the Acadia Hospital/Project AWARE mental health movie, “The Road Back”, was a tremendous success. Many young people from across the state participated in the project, both on camera and behind-the-scenes, during the two weekends of filming. I look forward to viewing the rough edit of the film soon! The film’s premiere is scheduled for mid-spring. Visit http://www.projectaware.net/ for updates on this project as well as many others.

Last month, I participated in the filming of a series of educational shorts produced by Project AWARE and the Department of Education designed to raise awareness about various health issues. I played the part of Valerie in a short about tobacco abuse and had the opportunity to sit in on the filming of three other shorts regarding proper nutrition, increased physical activity and bullying prevention. It was a fun and successful weekend of filming and the shorts will do a great job of educating youth around the State of Maine.

Annnnnnnd after 8 years of involvement with Project AWARE, I have officially been named to the board! I look forward to meeting the other new members and discussing project ideas and fundraising possibilities for the next year!

Finally, Summer Priester, Amanda Patterson, Deb Landry, Inez Freeman and I have just finalized plans for our trip to Washington, D.C. In January. We will be visiting the White House, touring the city and meeting with several representatives. It’ll be a fun trip and I’m sure we’ll take PLENTY of pictures! I can’t wait!

I hope that everyone enjoys a restful holiday with family and friends! Now that I’m home on break and recuperating from a busy busy semester, I promise to blog again soon (Not an empty promise, I assure you!)

Merry Christmas & God Bless!

Shannon

Fall break, Story Time and McDreamy

Ahhhh, fall break. It just couldn’t come soon enough. The past several weeks have been filled with studying, studying, studying and frequent late-night trips to Dysart’s Truck Stop for DELICIOUS desserts--I’ve never been an advocate of super-strict diets. If you stay active and eat balanced meals, there’s no reason why you can’t treat yourself every now and then ;)

Anyway, it’s nice to have a few days off to relax with my family and friends back in Saco, and the mini break has given me the opportunity to make a few appearances in Southern and Central Maine!

On Friday, I visited Kennebunk Elementary School to read Deb Landry’s "Yankee Go Home", and talk to the first grade classes about bullying. The kids were adorable, attentive, and so excited to tell me everything the know about standing up to bullies! 

After the presentation, a young boy walked up to me and said, "Shannon...I like you. I hope you have a GREAT day!” Later on, I was told that the boy was known to be somewhat of a mischief-maker and it wasn’t common for him to be say such kind and sincere things to others out-of-the-blue…Moments like that are the ones that will stick with me forever. I hope that my chat with the Kennebunk Elementary students will have a positive impact on both he and his classmates. I also hope that I’ll be able to return to KES in the spring to kick off Wellness Week with a presentation on 5210 Let’s Go!

Yesterday, I spent time at the Dempsey Challenge in Lewiston, ME as a volunteer at the Zespri Kiwifruit booth. The Dempsey Challenge is put on annually in order to raise money for the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing at Central Maine Medical Center. There are fun runs, walk/runs and bicycle races going on all weekend, and lots of vendors and local health and wellness professionals are around, sharing health information and raising money for the cancer center. I had a chance to meet Patrick Dempsey and take a quick photo with him on Saturday, as he exited the stage following his kick-off speech. Patrick was quite a popular guy...and he had quite a security team haha.

It was a fun afternoon, and the Zespri Kiwifruit booth was a huge hit. It was run by Crossroads Youth Center, an organization that I've been involved with since elementary school. We're a part of the Zespri Kiwifruit for Kids Challenge right now and we are competing with 5 other charities from across the U.S. in the hopes of winning $10,000 from Zespri, which we will put toward the production of our film on childhood obesity. Visitors at the booth played the Kiwifruit for Kids game at www.kiwifruitforkids.com in order to earn points for the Northeast Region (Crossroads), and we gave away kiwifruit samples, t-shirts, hats, kiwifruit nutritional information, recipe cards and stickers. Hopefully the booth earned us a lot of supporters! If Crossroads earns the most points in the game, we will win the $10,000 grand prize. Right now we're almost 12,000 points ahead, but the contest runs until the end of the month. Visit the website (www.kiwifruitforkids.com) to play for Crossroads yourself! Also visit http://www.zesprikiwi.com/ for fun kiwifruit facts and yummy recipes :)

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading back to Orono to hit the books once again (boo hoo) and work on piecing together music for the Project Aware/Acadia Hospital Teen Mental Health Movie! If any artists have original music that they’d be willing to allow us to use in the film, please contact me via Facebook or email me at shannon.folsom@maine.edu :) I’m told that the first weekend of filming is going very well, and I can’t wait to spend a bit of time on the set next weekend! I was excited to see that the Bangor Daily News published an article about the project today at http://bangordailynews.com/2011/10/09/health/bangor-area-teens-write-direct-and-star-in-new-film-about-mental-health/ So exciting!

I’m off to squeeze a few more moments of relaxation out of my break!

Hopefully I won’t go another month without blogging EVER again (shame on me), but please don’t forget that you can always read about the exciting things that the Collegiate and High School girls are up to by visiting the Facebook pages or MHSA website!

Food, Fun and Week One

Well, I’m happy to report that I survived my first week back at UMO! This will definitely be a busy and challenging semester, but now that I’m all settled into my new home and better acquainted with my housemates, my anxiety’s decreased and I’m ready to buckle down on schoolwork.

I’ll admit, I had my reservations about living off campus—the 10 minute commute to class had the potential to cause major frustration—but I’m finally convinced that moving away from Oak Hall this year was the right choice. As much as I loved living in a quiet single last year, 30 seconds away from the dining hall and 2 minutes from my classes, I’m far more excited about the chance to live with housemates, in a quiet neighborhood, with cute kitties AND my own kitchen :) The amount of cooking and baking that I’ve done in the past 14 days is ridiculous. Chocolate chip cookies, brownies, peanut butter brownies, orange peanut butter cranberry cookies, chocolate chip blueberry muffins, vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies, Israeli couscous, whole chickens, stir fries, caramelized onions, zucchini and summer squash, apple paninis, spaghetti squash….the list goes on. Of course, I didn’t bake all of the treats for myself. I shared them with friends and housemates and I've kept up with my normal, halthy eating/exercise schedule--Thank you to the Orono IGA for supplying me with carts full of reduced-price produce and thanks to the Orono Farmer’s Market for offering up some delicious goat cheese spread and fresh summer squash yesterday. Dairy, vegetables and fruits are taking over my fridge.

 Chocolate Chip Cookies :)

 Mom sent up my favorite stir fry pan :)

 Orange peanut butter cranberry cookies topped off with dark chocolate!

 Salad with fresh corn, caramelized onions and home-cooked chicken

Spaghetti? NOPE! Spaghetti squash :)

While we’re on the subject of healthy food…Did you know that September is National
Obesity Awareness Month? What better way to advocate for healthy lifestyle choices than by supporting Crossroads in ZESPRI’s Kiwifruit for Kids Campaign?! It’s super easy (and fun) to get involved, I promise. ZESPRI is trying to spread the message that childhood obesity is a solvable problem by reaching out to charities across the United States that promote healthy food and exercise choices among young people. Crossroads was the charity chosen to represent the Northeatern U.S. based on its involvement with the 5210 Program (which I’m a spokesperson for), and by playing the ZESPRI Kiwifruit for Kids game on Facebook www.kiwifruitforkids.com (which will take you all of 2 minutes each day) you can help Crossroads win the Kiwifruit Challenge and receive $10,000 for our obesity awareness film project :) PLEASE take a couple of minutes a day to play for the Northeast!

That’s all for now. I’m off to study and earn some kiwi points! Happy Hump Day!

Orlando to Orono

Well, I’ve done a pretty decent job of neglecting my blog as of late--I wanted to finish my summer off the right way with a busy schedule and lots of excitement. Before leaving for Florida, I had a fun photoshoot with a fabulous photographer from Portland, Danielle Hanson. Danielle has been pursuing photography for a decade and shoots a wide range of subject matter including landscapes, architecture, weddings and portraits. You can visit Danielle’s website at http://www.daniellehansonphotography.com/. Here is one of the photos from my shoot!

Photographer: Danielle Hanson

On Friday, the 12^th, I hopped on an airplane with my mother and sister, bound for the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant in Orlando. Pageant week began with a 7 AM photoshoot with Jenn Cady, a photographer from Nashville who does INCREDIBLE work (http://www.jenncady.com/). All of the contestants modeled Tony Bowls dresses and shoes and I worked has the official fan blower, note taker and dress thrower. It was fun to be on the other side of the camera! Luckily, I also got my time in front of the camera later on in the week--On Friday, I modeled a Jovani gown from Regalia Magnificent Apparel and several Christine Blake Designs in a photoshoot with Jenn at the MAOT tradeshow. I had such a great time working and shooting with her!

 Photographer: Jenn Cady Dress: Jovani from Regalia Magnificent Apparel

 Photographer: Jenn Cady Dress: Jovani from Regalia Magnificent Apparel

Photographer: Jenn Cady Dress: A Christine Blake Design

The rest of my week in Orlando was exciting AND super hot. I had the chance to visit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure with my family (Harry Potter World and the new Rip Ride Rockit coaster were amazing!) and relax by the pool. I also spent several days working with the girls in the Teens in Training and Princess Camp girls who enjoyed a busy and profitable week of their own.  It was a fantastic vacation, and I’m happy to report that Ali had a wonderful experience and did a fantastic job in all phases of competition! My congratulations to the new Miss America’s Outstanding Teen, Elizabeth Fechtel—such a sweet girl!

 Family Photo (My Dress: Christine Blake Design)

Ali

Photographer: Jenn Cady Dress: Jovani

Since returning from Orlando my life has been all about moving into my new home and preparing for fall semester (Classes begin tomorrow, eek!). I’m almost all settled in, and I’m looking forward to a fun and successful year  with  my roommates :)  I’m also looking forward to the chance to cook food in my very own kitchen this year and steer clear of the dining halls haha. Lucky duck that I am, I moved back up north on just the right day, too. Tiffany Fortier, a PHENOMENAL photographer from Bangor just happened to be looking for a model to do a test session with on Wednesday, and I just happened to be departing from Saco that morning. Tiffany had the chance to test out her new lens and I had the chance to work with an amazing photographer and get some fabulous pictures. I'll post a few below, but please also check out her Flickr page at http://www.Flickr.com/photos/TLFphotography.  She has incredible portfolio and is such a great photographer to work with :)

 Photography & Styling: Tiffany Fortier

 Photography & Styling: Tiffany Fortier

Photography & Styling: Tiffany Fortier

Coming up: 

-Information on Crossroads’ partnership with the Kiwifruit for Kids program and its fall project to raise awareness about childhood obesity and eating disorders.

-Updates on the progress of the Acadia Hospital/Project Aware movie about mental health stigma.

-Seminar with Kyle Haggerty, nationally renowned pageant coach: Sunday November 20^th in Waterville, Maine.  

Maine Pageants, etc

Another pageant down!  I was happy to welcome three more Mainers into the MCA/MHSA family this weekend at the second annual Maine Academic Pageant, which was held at Thornton Academy in Saco. An afternoon pageant was held for the younger divisions, at which time Trystin Flinner was crowned Miss Maine Preschool, Eliza Jack was crowned Miss Maine Primary, Marissa McGraw was named Miss Maine Elementary and Natalie Claverie was named Miss Maine Princess. All of the girls seemed to have a great time strutting across the Garland Auditorium stage! 

With the girls from the Eastern Maine pageant system after the afternoon pageant

During the evening pageant, we crowned Miss Maine Jr. High 2012, Ameena Vizcarrondo, Miss Maine High School 2012, Casey Bonville, and Miss Maine Collegiate 2012, Brittany Beardon. It was a fantastic pageant and I had a great time getting to know all of the contestants. I was sad to watch my little sis, Sammi Clark, give up her Maine High School title, but I look forward to getting to know the new titeholders and KNOW that Casey and Brittany will do a wonderful job at nationals in March! 

All of the Maine Academic titeholders will be busy touring the state, volunteering, and promoting the Maine Academic platform, 5210 Let’s Go! this year. Thank you to Rick Fortier, the Southern Maine Medical Center Let’s Go! Program Manager, who took the time to do a special presentation for all of the contestants and their families about the 5210 Let’s Go! message. I will be speaking with school groups and afterschool programs throughout the State of Maine about Let’s Go! myself, this fall. As a side note: If you would like to request an appearance, please visit the MAP website

Meanwhile, I’m scrambling to get ready for my trip to Florida. On Friday, I’ll be flying down to Orlando for the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant. I’m excited to cheer my sister on throughout the week, and know that she’ll do a wonderful job. Her sendoff party took place on Sunday, and she raised another $200 for Children’s Miracle Network while modeling her competition wardrobe and performing her talent. Also, there was cake. So, the evening was obviously a success. While in Florida, I’ll also be helping out with the MAOT Princess Program, visiting with some of my MAOT ’08 sisters, catching some rays, and riding plenty of rollercoasters. Life’s tough, I know. I can’t wait!

Now, it’s time to get back to playing Battleship, Stratego and “Capture the Princess” (I love my job) and squeezing in as much fun reading as possible, because I know there will be zero time to read anything but textbooks once I return to school in a few weeks! I’ll also be doing a photo shoot in Portland this evening and will be post photos as soon as I get them!  

Congratulations to the following girls, who were crowned over the weekend:

Victoria Tatrow -- Miss TN High School

Lesleigh Stanfill – Miss TN Collegiate

Sydney Morales – Miss GA High School

Kaitlyn Bruce – Miss GA Collegiate

Carmen Shumaker – Miss MS High School

Alana Michelle – Miss LA High School

Christine Kozlowski – Miss MS Collegiate

Briana Lowe – Miss NV High School

Cory Bradley – Miss NV Collegiate

I can’t wait to meet you all in San Antonio!

Arkansas!

What an incredible week! I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to travel down to Arkansas for the Arkansas High, Jr. High and Collegiate Pageants! This has certainly been one of the biggest highlights of my reign thus far.

I arrived at the Little Rock airport and was met by Inez Freeman and Amanda Patterson, who brought my mother and me back to Amanda’s BEAUTIFUL home in Benton.  After meeting the rest of the Patterson family, Inez, the Pattersons, my mother and I met Chelsy Lewis (Miss Arkansas Collegiate 2011) and her mother for dinner, where I enjoyed chicken, collard greens and some amazing corn bread!

Thursday was spent working hard on last-minute pageant preparations and catching up with my MCA/MHSA family. I went to my first Sonic for Lunch (there aren’t any Sonics in Maine!) and had a girls’ night out in Little Rock with Amanda, Inez, Jen West, Chelsy Lewis, and Hallie Waddell (Miss Arkansas High 2011). I had the chance to enjoy the beautiful Arkansas weather on the restaurant patio and Inez and I split a reaaaaally yummy apple crisp for dessert!

Friday was pageant day #1! We all arrived at Pulaski Academy bright and early to meet the contestants and begin rehearsals.  All of the girls looked fabulous and quickly learned the opening number and walking patterns. While the Collegiate and High School contestants practiced on stage, I had the chance to work with the Junior High contestants alone. What a great group of girls! 

Arkansas High, Collegiate and Jr. High Contestants

And then, I was in for some unexpected excitement.  Hallie drove Chelsy and me to Panera bread for a quick lunch at Panera Bread. On our way back to the theater, I was sipping my iced tea in the back seat and chatting with the girls when all of a sudden—BUMP! The person behind us hit the brakes just a little too late and slid right into Hallie’s back bumper. Luckily, all of us were okay and the damage was minimal, but I can only imagine what the driver was thinking when 3 girls jumped out of the car in dresses, heels and pageant sashes! It was quite a scene. . .

Post-Fender Bender

Thankfully, that’s where our bad luck ended. The Collegiate and High School preliminary went off without a hitch and each of the contestants did a wonderful job. I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the judges panel!

Saturday began with High School and Collegiate interviews. . .and some really delicious chicken minis from Chick Fil A. The judges were so impressed with the maturity and poise exhibited by the contestants in the interview room and were lucky to have a few hours to reflect on the 72 girls’ interviews while the Junior Miss contestants competed in the afternoon Junior Miss Arkansas High Pageant. I appreciated having the opportunity to emcee the afternoon pageant and witness Arynn Johnson’s reaction as I called her name as the new Junior Miss Arkansas High! 

Saturday evening was the big event—The 2012 Miss Arkansas High and Collegiate Pageant! The top 15 High School and Collegiate contestants competed in the Fashion Runway and Evening Gown competitions and Hallie and Chelsy said their goodbyes before all of the contestants were brought back onstage for awards and crowning. At the end of the night, Raygan Sylvester was crowned Miss Arkansas High 2012 and Naiz Bolin was crowned the new Miss Arkansas Collegiate! Both are sweet, beautiful girls and will do wonderful jobs at nationals in March! I’m happy to welcome two new queens into the MHSA/MCA family! :)

 Miss Arkansas High 2012, Raygan Sylvester

  Miss Arkansas Collegiate 2012, Naiz Bolin

Spending time with Amanda, Inez, Hallie, Chelsy, Summer Priester (Miss High School America), Kyndal Hayes (Miss Collegiate America 2010), Laine Berry, Jennifer, and the rest of my MCA/MHSA family was amazing. Thanks so much to the Patterson family for your hospitality all week long. I loved Arkansas and will certainly have to visit again soon! 

With Chelsy, Laine Berry and Hallie backstage, wearing a Royal We dress!

 With Hallie and Chelsy backstage on Saturday, wearing a dress from The Royal We!

 With Summer (and Tripp) after the pageant :)

With Tripp Patterson :) What a sweetheart

Singing "In My Daughter's Eyes" at the evening pageant.

Coming home was difficult; I wasn’t ready to leave! BUT, I have lots to get ready for back in Maine, as this weekend is the Miss Maine Academic Scholarship Pageant, where we’ll crown the next Miss Maine High School and Miss Maine Collegiate. I’ll also be cheering for the lovely Christine Blake as she competes for the title of Mrs. United States on Friday night and preparing for my sister’s Miss America’s Outstanding Teen send-off part on Sunday! Phew, it’s pageant time!!

(Almost) Arkansas Bound!

Please excuse me if this blog post seems scattered. I’m lacking focus at the moment. . . I blame it on the fact that I’m overwhelmingly excited about my trip to Arkansas on Wednesday!! The Arkansas High and Collegiate Pageants will be held on Friday and Saturday, and I am heading down to help out and spend a bit of time with my pageant family. I look forward to meeting all of the contestants and catching up with Amanda Patterson, Inez Freeman, Laine Berry, Summer Priester, Carina Romero and Kyndal Hayes!! It’s going to be so much fun!

After a very busy seven days last week, things have slowed down a bit. I’ve spent the past few days preparing for Maine’s Academic Pageants (which will be held on August 6^th), adding new songs to my repertoire (never know when I may be asked to perform!), planning my sister’s send-off party (she leaves for MAOT on August 12^th), catching up on the progress of several film projects (I’ll be playing a role in an educational short about tobacco prevention next month, and the Project AWARE mental health movie that I blogged about in May is moving right along), and getting a liiiiittle relaxation in. I’ve been reading, “Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert M. Pirsig and, although I’m only about 1/3 of the way through, I can already tell it’s a great read--very engaging. It’s been recommended to me several times and served as the official Honors College read the year before I started up at UMaine.I have a feeling it'll be finished before my plane lands in Little Rock.

I’ve also done a bit of leisurely raspberry picking this week. The raspberries in my backyard are growing like crazy this month, and my taste buds couldn’t be happier about it ;) I’m uploading a picture of the berries that I picked on Saturday—I just can’t resist! 

 Yum!

And while we’re on the topic of food (it’s one of my favorites)—I’ve been working diligently on putting together a personal cookbook for the fall. It’s a combination of family recipes, Cooking Light recipes, rotary recipes, personal recipes, and recipes that I’ve borrowed from the food blogs that I’ve discovered via two of my favorite websites, www.tastespotting.com and www.foodgawker.com ---Just a warning, don’t set either one of these as your homepage. . .You’ll get very distracted---Anyway, this will be my first year of off-campus living and I am beyond excited to have a kitchen again. I have set a challenge for myself: This school year, I plan to prove to others that eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive. I hope to make use of sales and coupons, plan weekly menus, create yummy & healthy food, and blog about my budgeting and cooking successes (and failures).

Now, it’s time for me to get back to packing! I’ll update everyone on my trip to Arkansas upon my return and I’ll leave you with a picture. This is the Maine High School and Collegiate opening number dress, which I’m SO impressed with. It’s a Christine Blake Design. The Collegiate dresses are blue, the High School dresses are Red and the current titleholders’ dresses are white :) Can’t wait to see them on stage!