October 7, 2007

It has been about two weeks since I was crowned Miss Newfoundland and Labrador 2007-2008 and as you can imagine, my year has certainly started off busy! It has left me very excited to see what will be coming up for the rest of the year. On September 27th, I had an interview with Bill Bowman from The Compass, Trinity-Conception's local newspaper, to accompany the picture that he took at the pageant. The article can be found in the October 2, 2007 edition of The Compass. My very first appearance took place on September 28th, 2007. I was invited as a special guest to the Trinity-Conception Shrine Club's 9th Annual Gospel Concert at the Shelia NaGeira Theatre in Carbonear. This event was to raise money for the Shriner's Children's Hospital, a charity that I have been involved with since I was 14, who are dedicated to helping children with Orthopedic and Burn Problems. I was invited onstage to say a few words and I can't tell you how excited I was to be able to take part in this event. I was fortunate enough to meet some of the people who volunteered to come out and sing for the concert, the Morgan Brothers, The Mercers and The Trinity South Gospel Singers. I was also given the opportunity to meet with the Potentate, Sir William Smith. It was an honor for me to take part in this appearance and especially to have it as my very first appearance.

The next day brought me to St. John's for some more appearances. First was the Real Time Cancer Climb. This event was a climb up Signal Hill to raise money for cancer. It started at the Aliant Building in St. John's where people and teams came to register for the walk. After they visited the registration desk they came to get their walk T-shirts. I was pleasantly surprised when a group of girls from Holy Heart of Mary came over and asked me for a photo and asked if I would autograph their walk t-shirts. It was exciting for me as it was my first autograph session! When registration was finished we proceeded outside to do some stretching before we began our walk. It was slightly drizzly and a bit wet but we climbed Signal Hill anyway. Battling the flu didn't stop me from climbing with the rest of the participants although it was a great feat to climb to the top! After getting a huge group picture it was time to climb back down the hill. When the walk was finished there was a very large Bar-B-Q in which everyone who participated was invited. I want to thank Tara O'Brien from Real Time Cancer for inviting me to take part in such a wonderful event.
When the Real Time Cancer Climb was over it was back up to Signal Hill for the Amateur Radio Convention. It was so much fun watching them use the Emergency Radio up on Signal Hill to transmit messages across the ocean. From there we went back to the Geo Center for supper and photos. It was very interesting learning how to use the Emergency Communication System. Now I know, just in case! lol! All in all it was a great day with two really fun appearances.
My next two appearances took me to my old high school, Carbonear Collegiate, on October 5th, 2007. First I participated in the RCMP Roll over demonstration. It was actually a pretty cool demonstration. They used a machine and dummies to simulate what would happen in a roll over for both the passengers wearing seatbelts and without wearing seatbelts. It was definitely a bit of a shock to see the dummies fly out the windows of the car because of the car rolling over and them not wearing seatbelts. It was a very informative demonstration and I am sure that all of the students who watched thought so as well. From there I went to help out with the Registration process of the Cross Country Regionals. Here I met the runners and helped register the schools who were participating. After the registration was finished I went down to the start/finish line where I helped out and of course, cheered on the runners. When the races were finished I was given the opportunity to give out the medals and banners to the winning students and schools. It was a great appearance and I want to thank Randy Ralph for inviting me to take part in the event.

Those are my events so far and I have more coming up this weekend. I want to thank everyone who has allowed me to participate in their events ~ I have had an amazing time so far and I can not wait for the rest of them. Please keep checking the website for updates on my appearances, journals and of course pictures of the pageant and my events! And don't forget if you see me at an event please come up to me and introduce yourself, I would love to meet as many people as possible this year! Talk to you all soon!

Love Always,