Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

What an honor it was to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Frederic C. Hamilton Boy Scout Headquarters on Monday. It was a beautiful morning for such an occasion. This new building will truly be a one stop shop for Scouts. It houses the new Scout Shop as well as all other Scout related activities. It even has conference rooms for training and meeting purposes. For more information, please visit the Denver Area Council web page .

This was the official ribbon cutting. Frederic C. Hamilton for whom the building was named for was on hand to do the honors.

Mayor Hickenlooper and Past Council Chairman and President Pete Coors were some of the dignitaries attending the celebration.

M. Doak Jacoway, Chairman of the Board, and his lovely wife welcomed everyone to the event.

This sculpture of the Ideal, Unknown Scout is in front of the building and was donated by the Jacoway family. It is said that it is good luck to touch his ax. This sculpture represents the the story of William D. Boyce who was lost in London in the year, 1908. He was helped by a Boy Scout who refused a tip because it was his Good Turn for the day. Mr. Boyce brought Boy Scouts to America and founded what we know today as Boy Scouts of America in 1910. This February,We will celebrate 100 years! I am committed to taking this time tested organization into its second century. It continues teaching character, citizenship and personal fitness to today's young people. It is more relevant now than ever!

Boy Scout Board of Review

Tonight I had the honor of sitting on my first Board of Review. It was for a young man who had fulfilled all the requirements for the rank of Tenderfoot. The board of review is an interview process that looks at how much the Scout can apply what he has learned in Boy Scouts to his every day life, what his plans are for his future in Scouting and how he is doing in life in general. We ended the interview with words of encouragement and helped him think about ways to advance to his next rank. It is very much like the interview process in Pageants. The skill of interviewing will take this young man far in life. In case you were wondering, yes, he passed with flying colors. Congratulations to another boy one step closer to the rank of Eagle.

Raingutter Regatta

Boy Scouts teaches character. One of they ways they do this is through friendly competition. Tuesday was our Pack's Raingutter Regatta. The boys make boats then "sail" them in real rain gutters filled with water.

The event started with a wonder picnic of Subway submarine sandwiches. Very fitting for a regatta.

The race is accomplished by the boys blowing on the sails. They are not allowed to touch the boats except to right it if it capsizes.

Part of the fun is cheering on all the participants.


The first, second and third place for each Den receives a medal. Every participant gets a patch for their brag vest.

The finale is a huge sunday that fills two raingutters with icecream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and sprinkles.

No cheating and starting before everyone else. On your marks, get set, go!



Yum!

Colorado CoEd Pageant

This past weekend was the Colorado CoEd Pageant. Emily and I attended as representatives for the International Pageant.



Erin, Mrs. Colorado Galaxy and Jessica, Miss Colorado Galaxy are two of my favorite queens. We always have such a great time together.


Alina Perry won Super Model for her age division. Way to go! Look for her in an upcoming edition of Super Models Unlimited.


Chaplain Rourk was one of the judges for the pageant.

Denver Heart Walk 2009

Today was the Denver Heart Walk. I had the privilege of signing up participants for Go Red for Women.

Emily Shlehuber is our new Miss Teen Colorado International. She has jumped in to her new position with energy and enthusiasm. Love the red feather boas we wore to draw attention to this wonderful program!

Emily, Patsy and I worked the booth during the entire morning. Patsy is one of the many amazing volunteers with the American Heart Association.


One of the celebrities who came out to support the walk is retired Denver Nuggets player Ervin Johnson. He was making an appearance at the empowerme2b booth. This is the AHA program for kids that I am the coordinator for Boy Scouts.


Another celebrity at the walk was the Colorado Rapids mascot Edson Eagle. Soccer is a great sport and a wonderful way to work your heart no matter what age you are.

Eagle Project

This afternoon I attended Robert Anderson's Eagle Project called STaND (Robert is the young man on the left). It was a six hour workshop on protecting your dignity for teens. Eagle is the highest rank in Boy Scouts. The eagle project can take months to coordinate, and even after the event there is more to do. This project teaches a lot of valuable life lessons like time management, money management and leadership skills. Each project is a community service. Some require building something like a handicap access or play ground and others, like Robert's, provide education.

Last year alone in the Denver Area Council there were 453 Eagle Scouts resulting in 57,486 hours of service and $1,769,835 in project costs and labor value to our communities. Now, imagine that number multiplied across the country. Boy Scouts is a wise investment.


The morning began with a workshop on car safety. The next session featured Barbara and her husband. They shared her struggle with HIV and their commitment to their relationship. They have shared 15 years of marriage. Their workshop focussed on safety of the heart and how to protect yourself from dangerous situations.


The final workshop was the physical aspect of self defence. The participants all had an opportunity to learn various ways to escape a potentially dangerous situation as well as how to avoid them all together. This was a valuable community service. I hope Robert will make this curriculum available for others to use.


Of course, food is important at all Boy Scout functions!

Books For Gaza

This morning I took books to the WAY-FM book drive for Books For Gaza. This was a book drive for the children of the American International School. Their school was bombed and they lost all their books.


I has the opportunity to hang out with Michelle from WAY-FM. We had a great time at the Mardel Christian Store.

AHA CPRU Ready

Today the Pepsi Center wasn't all about the Nuggets. It was an opportunity to help save lives. The American Heart Association held a Family and Friends CPR mass training. We had almost 400 people receive training that could potentially save a life. We were trying to break the record of 480. The important thing was that all these people could one day make a difference.


Tom and Erin were hosting a booth to write thank you notes to Senator Nancy Spence and Rep. Dianne Primavera for sponsoring the AED bill that recently passed the Colorado Legislature. This bill will protect business and institutions from civil liability. This will mean a greater number of AED's available and more lives saved.


Knowing your numbers is an important part of protecting your heart. I had my blood pressure checked by Dr. Jeff Bushnell of On Point Urgent Care. You can find out more information at On Point .


These wonderful Doctors donated their time to take event participant's blood pressure. They are (L-R) Dr. Paul Norton, Dr. Jeff Bushness, both from On Point Urgent Care and Dr. John Torres from Premier Urgent Care. His web site is Premier .


Of course all the volunteers are wonderful. I had so much fun working with Jeff and Sarah. Both had different reasons for volunteering, but both found the experience rewarding. If you would like to volunteer for the American Heart Association, go to Heart.org .

Cub Scout Graduation

Tuesday night was Pack 175's graduation ceremony. This marks the boys completion of an age appropriate rank and their advancement to the next one. There are five ranks in Cub Scouts. Boys can start in first grade with Tiger, second is Wolf, third is Bear and forth/fifth is a rank called Webelos. That last rank covers two years. The word Webelos actually means We'll Be Loyal Scouts. It is the "middle" rank between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. The fifth rank is actually the first rank required no matter what year a boy enters Cub Scouts called Bobcat. It focuses on safety in Scouting.

In our Pack, the parents receive a ribbon that marks each boys advancement with a pin. Here my son Matt is pinning my new Webelos pin on my ribbon. All the boys in my den also received their compas badge that tracks how many achievements each boy completes at the Webelos level. We are an ambitios bunch. Our goal is to earn the 20er patch for completing all the achievements. Goal setting is an important life lesson taught in Scouting. Go for it!

Colorado Nobility Association

The Colorado Nobility Association held it's first luncheon at the Crown Plaza hotel. A fitting venue for such a gathering of queens and delegates.

Elba Seilhan (L) and Brooke Taylor (R) are the visionaries behind this wonderful association. It's purpose is a charity focused group of pageant queens/delegates coming together to celebrate our different systems and work to better our communities.


The key note speaker was Deborah Wright, Mrs. Galaxy 2009. She shared her journey through pageantry to become a national title holder.


Deborah is a gracious queen who has also held the titles Mrs. Maryland International 2005 and Mrs. Pennsylvania International 2007.

Of course almost no post is complete without a picture of myself with my good friend and pageant supporter, Chaplain Rourk.

Cystic Fibrosis Walk, Denver

Jamie Patrick, Miss Colorado International and I met for coffee before the festivities.


I had such a memorable time at the Cystic Fibrosis walk in Denver. I was there with my sister queens to support this fundraising event. We helped Chaplain Rourk hand out Drug Demand Reduction goodies and to walk. This is an important event to Chaplain Rourk because his grandson has CF. Here are all the queens with Chaplain Rourk.


The Civil Air Patrol was the Color Guard for the opening Ceremony.

These fine young men are all members of the Civil Air Patrol.

It was an honor to have my picture taken with this little girl who has CF. Also pictured is Jamie Patrick, Miss Colorado International.

At the Kool 105 booth.


We had a beautiful day for a walk in spite of all the rain the night before. Here I am with Jamie, Erin Feltes, Mrs. Colorado Galaxy and Jessica Smith, Miss Colorado Galaxy.

Scholar Achievement

This week we finished our Scholar Achievement. I taught the boys about the B.E.S.T. steps they can take to be successful in school. Believe it can happen, Expect success, Set your mind and Try, try, try. Each of the boys wrote down things they can do now because of what they learned in school. They gave examples of being able to sign their name in cursive and multiply decimals. Each of the parents listed what they thought was the best thing about our school and one way to improve our school. The boys then voted on who gave the best answer. Mr. Belin won for his topic on the Silent Auction. Then we discussed various full-time positions in the field of education. I shared about my different teaching positions I have had over the years. We finished the evening with the boys each giving an example of how they had helped another student with schoolwork. I am proud to say that they all had helped another student at school. After all, whether a boy is doing chores around the house, playing soccar or doing schoolwork, scouting is about "Do your Best!"

Sherridan Middle School

I was invited by Chaplain Rourk to attend the 9 health fair held at Sherridan Middle School to encourage the students to make healthy choices. It was a blast to see my friend and fellow queen, Erin Feltes, Mrs. Colorado Galaxy 2009. This was my first time to meet Taylor Shettler, Miss Colorado Teen USA. She is so sweet.These two handsom young men are both members of the Civil Air Patrol. Joshua (L) and Adam (R) are both didicated to this wonderful volunteer service.

Coronation Reception and Go Red

A big THANK YOU to all who supported my coronation reception. The biggest thank you goes to my wonderful mom who helped organize this event.

The silent auction table with wonderful gifts from Cherry Creek businesses.

The Go Red information table.