Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Results are in! I FINALLY DID IT!

I won the two awards I have ALWAYS dreamed of winning and it was perfect.  This was my 5th year competing for Miss New Hampshire and every year it has been my goal not only to win Miss NH but to walk away with the community service awards.
Well this year I did not win Miss NH but  I won the Miss America Community Service Award AND the Miss New Hampshire Meg Geraghty Memorial Community Service Award.  I walked away with $4,000 in scholarships which is phenomenal!  These two awards meant the world to me and to me represent more than the title of Miss New Hampshire ever could.

The Meg Geraghty Memorial Community Service Award is awarded to the contestant whose community service resume reflects a broad and diverse set of volunteer efforts.  This contestant will have worked extensively throughout her community on a variety of community service projects on a volunteer basis.  Meg Served for many years as the ED of the Miss NH Program, during the Union Leader's 54 year sponsorship of the program.  Mrs. Geraghty was the "Family Page" editor in the newspaper until she retired in the late 1980's.  She passed away in June of 2007.  The award comes with a $1,000 Scholarship.

I spent hours putting my book together!  I had to write about every volunteer effort I did and submit 12 pages of supporting documents like letters and pictures.  I am honored to receive both of these awards as it represents my commitment to my platform and service.  I love what I do!  I am so happy I was able to serve as Miss Manchester and guess what I still have appearances!  It's not over yet.

To Debbie

I wanted to take some time to thank my director Debbie St. Hilaire!  I don't even know where to begin.  From the day that I won Miss Manchester Debbie has been so supportive and so exciting to work with.  She is fun and really represents what this program is all about.  I talked with her and texted just about every day since January 2nd.  She has been beyond helpful!  We spent days on my paperwork at her house and shared great conversations and lots of food!  She even introduced Greek Yogurt to me (so good).  She literally poured her heart into me because she wanted me to do well.   She spent hours of her own time searching for the perfect gown, the perfect hair styles, the perfect swim suit and much more.  I was amazed by how much she wanted me to do well!  We had a commitment to each other and that was to do our best, have no regrets, and be FEARLESS.

When it came time to chose my talent it was such a hard decision.  I think we spent over 10 hours on youtube alone looking for a song.  You should have seen her list of potential songs for me......the woman was so into it!!!!  I finally came to the conclusion.  I was sitting in the parking lot after an appearance at Girls Inc and my voice teacher said on the phone to me:  If you do the same thing you did last year you will get the same result, do something different, don't play it safe!  Then he said If you always do what you've always done you'll always be what you've always been.  TRUE so I decided to be fearless and take a chance with Son of a Preacher Man....I had so much fun with the song.

The song was a Bill Wolfe arrangement and Bill Wolfe makes Miss America's!  I had such a fun time working with the song and learning it.  I felt so strong vocally and fearless emotionally.   I sang my little heart out for 2 minutes at Miss NH, worked the stage, worked the crowd and was happy with my performance.  DEBBIE: we picked an amazing song!

So she also spent hours with me at the mall looking for a swimsuit....I can't tell you how much she means to me.  She really went over the commitment of a director and made me a part of her life.  We literally talked every day.  She saw me happy and she saw me sad she saw me from all sides and know's just exactly who I am!

Congratulations to Debbie for being an amazing director and friend and helping me do my best.  The judges didn't like me that day but I was hot and on a different day with different judges I could have been the girl with the sparkly crown in the end.



I also want to thank Debbie's sister Lea Glickman for all her help as well!  She came along to many appointments and helped with many things to help get me ready for Miss NH so thank you to Lea too!