Happy Memorial Day!

I had the honor of riding in the Gloversville Annual Memorial Day Parade this past Saturday.  The sidewalks filled with people who came out to se the parade and honor those who serve our country.

After the parade I attended the memorial service that was held to honor our service men.  I was joined by Mayor Dayton King, who continues to give me that extra boost of confidence to believe in myself and I'm so honored to have him and his families support.

 

 Ronald F. Zimmerman gave the main address at the ceremony, he is a senior vice president and portfolio  manager with the Mohawk Valley Group of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and it was such a privilege to meet him, and I support him in his efforts for restoring the opera house in Gloversville.

I also was overjoyed to meet Scooby and Clara Smith at the memorial service and of course I had to get some pictures!









One group of young girls that do a tremendous amount of service for their community are the Girl Scouts.  I was happy to join them as they celebrate their 100th year anniversary, service being one of the most important points of the Miss America crown, I give them kudos for everything that they do.  I complemented the girls on their sashes that were filled with oodles of badges and I let them get a feel of my crown, which they loved almost as much as I love their cookies!!  Thank you Girl Scouts for always putting your best foot forward when helping out in the community.


I would also like to give a special thanks to George Zinner at Fucillo Ford of East Greenbush for sponsoring a 2012 Ford Mustang for me to ride in at the Gloversville Memorial Day Parade.  Miss Empire Rose was definitely riding in style thanks to you!!

Princess For A Day

As a benefit for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, I hosted A Princess For A Day.  But, that wasn't the only reason for the event, it was also to educate young girls about the Miss America Organization and the four points of the crown; scholarship, style, service and success.  I was joined by my sister queen Miss Empire Star, Danielle Trumbull and through different activities, we emphasized the importance of the four points of the crown.

At the scholarship station, each of the girls wrote on a foam crown what they want to be when they grow up and decorated it with glitter and crystals.

The style station consisted of headbands and bracelet making, it allowed each girl to show off their individual and unique style.

At the service station, we really wanted to emphasize the importance of service so we all made over 30 cards with messages of hope that will be delivered to the children at the Albany Medical Center.

Last but not least, the success station.  This station was something that was just fun for the girls, they had the activity of drawing a picture of their favorite memory and think about how they define success.

At the end of the day, we surprised the parents with a show for the all of the girls to showcase the dance that I had taught them and the song that Danielle sang for them.  We then honored every single girl with a crown and certificate for completing A Princess For A Day with Miss Empire Rose and Miss Empire Star.  We celebrated with cake, cookies and brownies (YUM)!

Broadalbin-Perth Pre-K Wellness Day

I had the honor of joining the Broadalbin-Perth Pre-K class for their 2012 Wellness Day.  I was in charge of my very own dance station to teach them a dance, get them moving and emphasize how important it is to live a healthy and active lifestyle.

The weather was beautiful, so we all decided to host the station outside!  I had so much fun teaching a dance to Honnah Montana's 'Ice Cream Freeze'...which I now know all the words to!  I was a little nervous at first, because I wasn't sure if the dance was too difficult for the kids.  I wanted all the kids to walk away from my station having enjoyed themselves and with something that they could take home and show their parents what they learned.

I had no idea why I was so nervous, the kids were all so fantastic and learned the dance quickly!  At the end of the wellness day, we got all the groups together for a end of the day performance....take a look!

Thank you to Mrs. Barker (my former cheerleading coach) for having me participate in your Pre-K Wellness Day, it was my pleasure!

Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Carwash

Today, I joined my sister queen Miss Empire Star, Danielle Trumbull for a day full of suds and fun!  We hosted a carwash to benefit the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, the carwash was free and we accepted donations only.

It was a slow start to the day, but eventually we started to pick up and we were getting one car right after the other.  Never did we think that we would have a couple people decide to come back in 20 

minutes because there were so many car ahead of them!

We were even surprised by a couple guests that decided it was time for a wash....sheriff cars!  Yes, that's right we were given the task to scrub as hard as we could to get those bugs off their cars.....trust me it wasn't easy.  We even got to wash a firetruck...so my workout for the day was done!

 Along with the carwash, we hosted a table filled with delicious homemade baked goods.  I'm still unsure if I ate most of the chocolate chip cookies....

Thank you so much to Ken Studier and the Perth Volunteer Fire Department for allowing us to host this carwash at your department and all of your help was greatly appreciated.  It was a joy meeting you as well!

After the carwash, of course I had to get my Dunkin' Donuts fix and I was amazed when I ran into a few fans next door when my mother and I purchased some Mother's Day flowers and some vegetables at Simply Sweet Produce.  It was so nice to meet some little ones that look up to me and were so excited to meet me, I was just as excited to meet them!  We snapped a few pictures and sipped on some of their homemade lemonade that they were selling.

OH!  I almost forgot to mention...we raised $276 for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals!!!  Thank you to everyone that came out to have your car washed and for everyone that wasn't able to make it but still donated, your money is going to support such a great cause and YOU have helped make miracles happen.

Purchase Your Tickets Now!

Please help me raise money for Miss New York by purchasing raffle tickets for a chance to win a 

Mary Kay basket with a value of $98!

As many of you may know, I am a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant, and if you didn't know...now you do!  So, when thinking of different ways to raise funds for Miss New York I thought, why not use some resources that I already have?!  So I decided to put together a basket full of some of my favorite Mary Kay products!  

I will be selling these tickets until the 20th of May and the winner of the basket will be drawn and announced on May 21st!  If you are interested in purchasing tickets, you can mail either money or a check along with your contact information to my address listed on the flyer and I will then fill out the amount of tickets you purchased with your name and number that will then be added into a jar of which the name will be drawn from.  If you happen to be the winner, I will then mail your gift basket to your address and you will have tons of beauty products that I promise you will love!

But, thats not all!

Once I reach my goal of $100, I will add in the Timewise Microdermabrasion Set that will increase the value of the basket to $188!!!  

So the more tickets you buy, not only do your chances of winning increase, but the value of what you win increases also!

So get your tickets now before time runs out!!

SafeTALK

Today's event that I hosted at Fulton-montgomery Community College, was a SafeTALK training.  The focus of this 3 hour training, is to create a "suicide safer" community by preparing you to identify persons with thoughts of suicide and connect them to suicide first aid resources.  

Marianne Reid, was the trainer for the SafeTALK, she was my SafeTALK trainer and she is just so amazing in what she does.  I was very pleased with the turnout, although I surprised that not many students attended, being that suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students.  So I made it one of my goals as a student, to get other students more involved in preventing suicide because this affects us, it affects everyone.  

I highly recommend that everyone be SafeTALK trained, because I know that it makes me feel safer knowing that anywhere I turn, if I need help, someone will be there and that if someone else needs help, I will be there to listen and to help.  

If you're interested in getting SafeTALK trained, contact me and I will love to set you up with the resources you need to host a SafeTALK training in your community, so that you can feel safer and so you can help others feel safer.

The Truth About Suicide

As a student at Fulton-Montgomery Community College and as a sitting board member on the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, I decided to coordinate several events throughout the week to not only help raise awareness of suicide, but to also educate people about suicide and how to prevent it.

Originally I had wanted to plan an event for every day of the week, but because of the busy schedule with the college and finals, I decided to narrow it down to two events that I felt were extremely important for college students and faculty.  

Today's event was the showing of the short film The Truth About Suicide: Real Stories of Depression in College.  It's a 27 minute film thats meant to present a recognizable picture of depression and other problems associated with suicide, as they are commonly experienced by college students and other young adults.  The film contains real life stories from families that have experienced suicide, and I feel that nothing has more of an impact than hearing it from someone who's experienced it.  

Amy Molloy, the area director for AFSP-Capital Region was a guest speaker at the event and after showing the film, she discussed and pointed out key points.  What was great about this event was that it was an open conversation the entire time and everyone shared personal stories and experiences that they've have with suicide.  

My platform begins with Starting the Conversation and that's what we did.  It's so important to talk about it, even if it's not about suicide, everything begins with a conversation.  So we need to take that step to start the conversation because it does save lives. 

A special thanks to Bill Trojan from the Leader
Herald for attending this event, the article was great and very much appreciated, thank you!!