Rocky Mountain PBS

Recently, Emily and I volunteered at The Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Association for their December fundraiser.

This was the wonderful group of volunteers that helped take pledges for the Rocky Mountain PBS fundraiser

I am ready to take pledges.

Emily and I had a friendly competition over who could raise more money. We each raised almost $1000 each.

Scouting for Food

Saturday, November 21st found me and two of my Webelos collecting food with Troop 794. We went door to door asking for non-perishable food donations that would go to the Mission Hills Food Pantry.

 

This was what our Troop did for Good Turn Week. It is the third week in November and Troops across the country did hundreds of hours of service as well as collecting tons of food and other items for those in need. Our Cub Scout Pack made blankets for project Linus. What a good turn!

Macy's/Go Red

Macy's sponsored a day of sales and nonprofits. Go Red for Women sponsored a table full of information as well as offering free blood pressure checks. These nurses all volunteered their time to offer this vital service to our community. Tracy Register, Miss Colorado International 2010 joined us for this event. Tracy has been active with Go Red for over three years and this is her platform.

This young woman said it had always been a dream to actually meet a title holder. She was so excited to finally meet not one but two title holders.

Imagine my surprise when Chaplain Rourk showed up to support me! He is such a wonderful man. I am excited to work with him to promote my new project called "Just Breath".

Chaplain Rourk, ever the ladies man, had to have a picture with all of us. He claims you never know where this picture may end up. He has had pictures even appear before congress! Thank you, Chaplain, for all your support.

Veteran's Day

Foothills Elementary School sponsored a Veteran's day event. Chaplain Rourk and the Colorado Royalty Association were invited to attend. Four systems were represented: Dream Girls, Galaxy, International and Teen World. It is always a wonderful time when we get together.

Each of the queens were introduced and allowed to speak briefly to  the audience that included students, faculty and Veterans. I spoke about how proud I am to be part of a family of veterans dating back to the Revolution. My husband's family has fought for this country since its birth!

Emily and Elaine Kuzatomi sang the National Anthem. Beautiful!

Each veteran present introduced themselves with their name, branch of service, when and where they served. This included our own Chaplain Rourk.

We were lead outside for the raising of the American flag. Representing the International system were, myself, Ronni Bibb, Mrs. Colorado International 2010 and Emily Schlehuber, Miss Teen Colorado International 2009.

The Cub Scouts were the color guard for the event. Aren't they cute in their uniforms? These are future leaders of America. I am so proud to be a part of this organization!

After the flag raising ceremony, there was a reception in the cafeteria. The children asked for autographs. I signed paper plates and napkins.It was a fun time.

Before we left, the first grade class asked to have their picture taken with all the queens. This will be one of my most special and meaningful appearances as Mrs. Colorado International 2009!

Littleton Stride

Early Saturday morning, I arrived at the Littleton History Museum for the Littleton Stride. It is a fundraiser  for the Littleton Public Schools. I have four children who have all attended LPS. This was a great opportunity to give back to my local community.

Our own Miss Teen Colorado International, Emily, joined me for this event. She is such a trooper!

At this hour, coffee is a wonderful thing. Thank you to Starbucks and all the other sponsors who came out to support the Littleton Stride.

We worked the timing chip pickup table. I'm still not sure how the things work, but for some, they wanted to know how quickly they finished the course. When we finished, we went to the finish line to cheer on the participants along with the local high school cheerleaders. 

Miss and Miss Teen Colorado USA

The Miss and Miss Teen Colorado USA Pageant introduced the new Mrs. Colorado International, Roni Bibb,  to the pageant world. 

Of course I attended with my friends, Erin and Rita. Congratulations to the winners.

Colorado International 2010

Crowns and sashes before the pageant. Who will be the next Colorado International Queens?

The pageant opens and I help introduce the judges. The beautiful and gracious Armaiti Fitzgerald, Mrs. International was the Mistress of Ceremonies for the night.

Awaiting the judges decisions on special awards and winners.

Helping to crown my successor, Roni Bibb.

 

All the queens and our Director Cindy (center)

 

L-R Jamie Patrick, Miss Colorado International 2009; Emily Schlehuber, Miss Teen Colorado International 2009; Armaiti Fitzgerald, Mrs. International 2009 and Me, Mrs. Colorado International, 2009

 

Three years of Mrs. Colorado Internationals: Brenda Baecker, Roni Bibb and myself.

 

Handing out awards at the post pageant reception. Jessica Hayutin, Miss Centennial International won best in elegance, the award for  evening gown.

If you follow my blog, these two faces should be familiar to you by now. Rita Case, first runner up at Mrs. Colorado America 2009 and Erin Feltes, Mrs. Colorado Galaxy 2009 traveled the 5 plus hours to support me. I love these ladies!

Arma and I after the pageant. There is something to be said for wearing comfortable pageant shoes. See? We are still smiling :-)

I couldn't resist a "MySpace" picture with my sister queen and good friend, Arma.

Wine in the Pines

Wine In The Pines is a wonderful fundraiser for Cerebral Palsy.  My family has attended this event for 12 years. It means a lot to my family. My father loved this event so much that when he was dying of prostate cancer, he willed himself to live long enough to attend it one last time. A week and a half later, he was gone. It was such an honor and a dream come true to attend as Mrs. Colorado International.

 

Mike and Margaret started this event 26 years ago as a way to give back to CP of Colorado for all the wonderful things they had done to help their daughter, Kelly. They are giving people and Mike is also a prostate cancer survivor.

Judy is the amazing coordinator for this event. She knows everyone and was so pleased that I was able to attend as Mrs. Colorado International. She really is the "life" of this party.

Of course, it wouldn't be Wine in the Pines without wine. Mitchell was on hand representing the Winery for this event,  Rodney Strong.The entire Friday evening is spent at the Keystone Ranch where the  talented chefs pair great food with the wines provide by the winery. The event is followed on Saturday night with wine and food tasting at the Keystone Event Center. Each guest is greeted by a mountain of chocolate when they come in the door. To witness this impressive display of chocolate is easily worth the price of admission.

Re(define) (Real)ity Fashion Show

 

Our very own Miss Colorado International was a model in the Re(define) (Real)ity  fashion show featuring real bodies. This event was such an honor for Emily as her platform is Eating Disorders and is herself a recovering Bulimic. I was so honored and proud to support her.

Emily was so pleased after the show. I love the glow of achievement on her face.

Kate Short represented Kappa Delta in this fashion show sponsored by Delta Delta Delta Sorority. I am so proud of the way she represented us.

Kappa Delta at Colorado State University

While attending the Founder's Day event for the Denver Kappa Delta Alumnae Chapter, I was invited to visit the KD house at Colorado State University. It was wonderful to meet the amazing young women who are today's Kappa Deltas.  I ate dinner with them and they shared their hopes and dreams with me. I will treasure this time with them.

 

My sorority sister and tour guide is the lovely Dana. She was a terrific tour guide and took so much pride in showing me the newly remodeled house. I am sure it helped this chapter reach max capacity for the first time in it's history at CSU.

BSA 100 Anniversary Tour

As part of the Boy Scouts of America's 100th anniversary, 14 teams are touring around the country visiting every District Council. This motor home was donated to this endeavor. When the tour is finished, it will be donated to the Smithsonian. How cool is that!

I tried to get a picture of the beautiful mural that was being donated to each District. I love that in the center of all these images of Boy Scouts is a picture of the man who is best know for capturing the true heart of Scouting, Norman Rockwell.

These two young men were awarded, along with two other Boy Scouts, for their efforts that helped save a young woman's life while camping. Last year alone, over 500 life saving awards were given to Boy Scouts!

Miss Boo'tiful Pageant

 I was honored to judge the Miss Boo'tiful Pageant. The judging panel was made up of top Pageant people in the Colorado area. It really opened my eyes to see a pageant from a judges perspective. It really is true that a different contestant could win on a different day with a different set of judges.

It was great to have my picture taken with some of the new queens along with the Colorado Coed Queens.

Red Ribbon Week

Although Red Ribbon Week is officially October 4th-10th, the message is so important that the festivities continued over a three week period. I attended two events with Chaplain Rourk of the Civil Air Patrol. It was started to honor an undercover DEA agent who was brutally murdered when it was discovered what he really was. It is in his memory that we encourage students across Colorado to just say "no" to drugs. If people didn't do drugs, we wouldn't need or loose fine men and women to drug cartels and dealers. 

Here we are "High Fiving" the students at a local elementary school. Yes, that is a real helicopter that was flown in at the beginning of the assembly.

They actually let me sit in the helicopter. I promise I did not touch or break anything.

This is the wonderful group I was able to work with at this school. (L-R) Chaplain Rourk, Yazzy Alonzo-Miss Colorado Jr Miss NAM, me, Erin Feltes, Mrs. Colorado Galaxy and Josh of the Civil Air Patrol.

A big thank you to the vice principal of the school. We are invited by the schools to make these very important presentations.

 

I attended another Red Ribbon Week event at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum. This time it was for the Colorado Cyber Schools. Again, they brought in a helicopter for the event.

 I couldn't resist another picture with Edison Eagle of the Colorado Rapids Soccer Team. They support so many events. They really reach out to their community!

This lovely group of young ladies asked to have their picture taken with some of the queens. They were a good reminder of why I am a role model.

This young man was displaying a poster with signatures of students that had agreed to never do drugs. After all, isn't that what Red Ribbon Week is all about?

When the event was over, I was escorted by Chaplain Rourk through the Air Museum. I know I am such a Nerd to have my picture with a "real" X-wing fighter. I love Star Wars!