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!!