What a great surprise!

When I went to Caesar Rodney High School, I played JV Girls Soccer my freshman and sophomore year under the coaching of Mr. Rathbun. Even after I switched over from soccer to theater, he still remained a huge supporter of me. I began competing in pageants my freshman year of high school, and starting that year, when I won Delaware's Junior National Teenager, I knew he was one of my biggest fans. Whenever I need a pick me up or ever think that what I am doing is not good enough, I end up running into to Coach R and instantly feel better.

After seeing him at the Caesar Rodney Homecoming Parade a few months ago, Coach R asked if he could do a small fundraiser for me to help with my Miss America expenses. I graciously accepted the idea and told him to stay in touch. A couple months after that I received one of the greatest phone calls! He called to say he had done a fundraiser and was able to raise nearly $300 for me!! You can imagine how excited I was to hear such great news. He had a couple of his classes along with his JV Girls Soccer Team, help him out in gathering the funds. Amazing!! Even better, when I went to formally accept the money in front of his classes, he surprised me with another $100, making that $400!

Every little bit helps and that was a huge help! It was nice to see support from people that have never even met me until now. Thank you very much to Coach R and his students, you have no idea how much you contribution will be remembered as I continue on my journey to becoming Miss America 2010!!

Beginning the New Year

This was actually before the New Year in December, but I am just now getting around to posting about it so please forgive me. This was at Long Neck Elementary School where I made a special guest appearance for Seasons of Respect. Ms. Kim Taylor has been my CharacterCounts! mentor, and asked if I would help her with the Seasons of Respect Celebration she was having at Long Neck Elem. Seeing that Respect is one of the six pillars of CharacterCounts! we thought it would be a great way for me to expand my platform. The fifth graders at Long Neck remembered everything Ms. Taylor taught them! I was amazed at how much they learned and how eager they were to share it with me. We enjoyed cake, dancing, and even a couple games! I know that Long Neck has some great role models walking its hallways!

The Miss Coastal Bay pageant was a great way to start off the New Year! On January 2nd, 2010 Stephanie Bailey(center of picture, blue gown) won the title of Miss Coastal Bay 2010! Congrats girl! It was an entertaining evening and it was great to see so many fellow titleholders there to watch. The 2010 Miss Delaware judges panel is going to have a tough job awaiting them in June.

This past Wednesday I had the privilege and honor to be the guest speaker at the Wilmington West Rotary Luncheon, courtesy of Mr. Don Kalil. It was great being able to share the importance of the Miss Delaware, and Miss America, program. It reaffirmed every reason I had for entering pageants, especially the Miss America pageants. I was warmly welcomed and enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the University and Whist Club in Wilmington. I even received a beautiful guest speaker pen for visiting! Thank you so much Wilmington West Rotary, I know I have many more people who will now be watching on January 30th at 8PM on TLC to see if I am crowned Miss America 2010!

Snow Day in Delaware!

A couple weeks ago, Delaware experienced one of its worst snow storms in many years. In the little town of Magnolia, we managed to get about 20 inches of snow in about a 24 hour time period!!!! We don't even get that much in an entire winter sometimes! I thought I would share a little bit of the experience with you.

Here is me attempting to contribute by shoveling out the porch and sidewalk to the cars. At this time, I did not know so much snow would fall after I was done that it would look like I did nothing! You may be able to tell that I am not an avid shoveler, but nonetheless I got the job done.

I just had to post this picture because it completely cracked me up! You know those phrases that say " You know you're a 'blank' when you 'blank'"? Ok, well this is mine... "You know you're a pageant girl when you pose for a picture of shoveling snow and you immediately go into pageant stance." Not sure what I was doing, but clearly I was not shoveling snow.

Last but not least, I wanted to share all of my snow with you, so here's me waiving "hi" from Delaware...the snow state (I wish)!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to another year and a better year than any before! This starts the countdown to leaving for Miss America. 20 days and counting!!

Thank you so much to everyone that helped me in this fantastic journey, and to everyone that is going to make the journey with me out to Vegas in support. I couldn't ask for a more supportive state. I am incredibly proud to be your Miss Delaware 2009 and hope to bring the crown home in 2010!

Enjoy this day with your friends and family, I know I will. After today it's crunch time!

Happy New Year!
Heather

PJ's for Pals!

PJ's for Pals was a huge success! Thank you so much to everyone that donated their time, money, and effort into making this pajama drive as big and meaningful as I had hoped for. Things started off pretty slow, my intentional start date kept being pushed back and fear of it failing constantly got in my way. With the help of my family and Jonathan I built up the courage to finally start in the middle of November. The drive lasted for about a month and after people began to hear about it the pj's started pouring in! I set up drop off boxes at Camden-Wyoming Fire Company, Lifestyles Fitness Center in Dover, Calvary Assembly of God in Dover, Best Buy of Christiana, and the Sheraton in Wilmington. My pageant family and supporters were a huge help as well, along with the employees of DNREC, Wal-Mart of Dover, and AppleTree Answering Services. We collected over 220 PJ'S!!!!

It was my goal to make this an effort that the success would be dependent upon the involvement of the community, and Delaware definitely stepped up to the challenge! I feel that it is my responsibility as Miss Delaware to get the name of our organization out in the community, and I feel that it is my responsibility as a citizen to help others that are in need. I took both feelings and combined them into a pajama drive for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Pajama's ranging in size from premature babies to teenagers were donated. So many businesses and community members, as you can see from the above paragraph, displayed exactly what I teach when I visit schools. Their action is exactly what defines a person that is a good citizen and more importantly one of good character. When I sorted through all of the PJ's that were donated and came across a bag with a receipt from South Carolina for a bunch of PJ's, I knew that the goal of PJ's for Pals had been reached. It was a drive for the patients at CHOP, but it was also something that I hoped would spread and touch the hearts of people all over. If someone from South Carolina could donate a few pajamas for a Miss Delaware pajama drive, then certainly we all can take a moment to help out those in need within our own state.

With love and great thanks,
Heather

Weekend Trip to Johnstown!

I began my trip to Johnstown by stopping by the Bridal Suite for my first fitting for my Miss America wardrobe, including several cocktail dresses and a few gowns. That evening Debi and I attended the Little Miss Merry Christmas pageant held by Ronnie Weaver. Miss Pennsylvania, Shannon Doyle, was there as well. We each performed while the judges finished calculating their scores. It was great to hear the feedback from the audience after my performance. Many of them had not heard opera before, so I was proud to introduce them to what I feel is one of the greatest classical pieces ever written, Adele's Laughing Song.

After the pageant, Shannon, myself, and several other local titleholders went to the nearby hotel for a fabulous holiday dinner party held by Deborah and Ronnie. I felt so much love from them that evening. I received gifts from people that just met me! Their thoughtfulness showed the true meaning of hospitality. Anything I wanted or needed that weekend, I got. It is always nice to meet fellow titleholders and see the beauty that flows from inside each and every one of them.

I was amazed by the size of the tree in the restaurant! It had to be the fattest tree I had ever seen! I thought it complimented my dress very nicely, so we took a quick holiday photo in front of it.

The following morning was the Northern Cambria Christmas Parade. Most of us that were there the night before, bundled up to brave the cold breeze that blew strongly that morning. We decided, what better to do that take pictures while we wait for directions on where to go!

After finding our horse drawn carriage, we wanted to make sure we took a picture in front of it because it was so beautiful! We felt just like Cinderella! As we went through the parade, the Tribune Democrat managed to snap a picture of us and titled it "Visiting Royalty", I was very flattered when I heard I made it in a Pennsylvania newspaper!

Whitten's Jeweler's Holiday Event

Some of you may remember Whitten's Jeweler's by now, but for those of you that do not, they are Miss Delaware's jewelry sponsor. I received a beautiful Whimsy ring from them when I won along with three contestants that won a watch from Whitten's for the Community Service scholarship. I also attended an auto show in Wilmington to hang out at their booth one afternoon. When I received notice that I would be not only attending but modeling one of their pieces for their special holiday event, you can imagine that I was thrilled! The piece you see me wearing is gorgeous and the design is called "Ribbon". There are diamonds throughout the ribbon as well, making it worth over $1600!

Debi Wilson, my Executive Director, attended the event with me and took pictures for me. We decided to be a little artsy in this picture. I am looking into a glass case full of beautiful gold jewelry that was specially marked for the holidays...if you weren't there you missed out!

While their mom's were visiting the store I caught up with these lovely ladies to see if they were excited for Christmas.

The big excitement of the evening was the drawing that took place. For months people that spent $50 were entered into a drawing, and every $50 dollars spent meant another chance in the drawing. It was for a stunning gold bracelet worth over $2000! The suspense was killing people as we picked a few names before hand to receive gift certificates, then once the final moment came the person that was called wasn't there!!!! So we pulled another name.....and they weren't there!!! (You had to be present to win.) Finally Cindy pulled another name and sure enough the woman called was there! She was shaking with excitement. This would make her 10th trollbead bracelet! Talk about a deserving person.

It was great being there to greet people as they shopped for the holidays and to witness the excitement of the drawing!