My Very Own Tour!

This past week, I have been super busy getting ready for the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen competition in Orlando the last weekend in August. I am pumped to have the opportunity to support my own amazing teen, DC’s Julia Braxton, as she competes for the title of MAOT. All the Miss America 2011 contestants will be in attendance, together for the first time. I was thrilled to see from the schedule that I will be going to Disney World on my birthday! This is the first time since I can remember that my birthday hasn’t been marked by the first day of school. I don’t mind school, but it’s really not my ideal way to spend a birthday.

One of the coolest things I have done recently was visit Capitol Hill with DC shadow Senator, Paul Strauss. For those of you not from DC, unlike the rest of America, DC does not have voting rights in congress; i.e., no senators and no representatives. (The motto on our license plates is ‘Taxation Without Representation’; we may not have the vote, but we still have the taxes.) Senator Strauss gave me a personal tour of the capital and took me to lunch in the private Senate dining room. It was so cool to get behind the scenes access to such a historic building. I even got to sit in on a little of the hearings about Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court (she was sworn in the next day). My tour even created a bit of a stir: http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/in-the-know/36-news/5407-reid-nearly-upstaged-by-miss-district-of-columbia

Finding myself unscheduled this weekend, I managed to sneak in an overnight trip to Philadelphia. I saw the real crack in the real Liberty Bell and toured one of the strangest museums in the world, the Mutter Museum, a collection of medical oddities (for example, drawer after drawer of things people have swallowed that you’re not supposed to put in your mouth), including a woman whose body turned into soap after she was buried. I’m not kidding.

I am having a fundraiser this Friday to kick off my Children's Miracle Network fundraising efforts. It will be at Current (also a great place for sushi) in Dupont, and all cover charges between 10 and 12 will be donated to CMN. I am thrilled to be able to raise money for such an incredible organization. As a medical student, Miss America's partnership with CMN hits particularly close to home for me. I spent last summer working with the noted pediatric orthopedic surgeon Dr. Laura Tosi at Children's National Medical Center, so I have seen firsthand the incredible things that CMN can do for a patient and their family.

Meanwhile I’ve been continuing my training workouts with Heather, occasional shopping excursions with Teri Galvez (my Executive Director and personal fashion guru), mock interviews at The Institute of World Politics and the Newseum, voice lessons, etc. Miss America here I come!

The Maine Invitational

This past weekend I had the pleasure of participating in Valerie Clemen's Maine Invitational, an annual opportunity to meet other state winners and learn more about the history of Miss America. It was an incredible experience from start to finish. I drove from DC to Atlantic City on Thursday, spent the night with my parents, and rendezvoused Friday morning at Schoppy’s with the other girls: Miss New Jersey, Miss Delaware, Miss Missouri, Miss Connecticut, Miss New Hampshire, Miss Rhode Island, and Miss Maine. For those of you who aren't familiar with Schoppy's, it’s the trophy store that has produced all the official Miss America awards and trophies (along with assorted other paraphernalia like rings, pins, earrings, and so forth) for decades. It was wonderful to get a chance to go inside the store and meet all of the people who work so hard to produce the Miss America goods. I was so overwhelmed by all of the Miss America merchandise I couldn't settle on what to buy, so I decided to get everything. Okay, maybe not everything, but I did get a pin, earrings, AND a crown ring! Hey, you only live once, right? After Schoppys we headed over to the Miss America Headquarters (yep, the show may be in Vegas, but the MAO is still headquartered in New Jersey) to meet the staff and tour the offices. What a cool place! The walls are lined with portraits of every Miss America all the way back to the first winner, Margaret Gorman (and is it just coincidence that she was also Miss District of Columbia?). The staff was so kind and gave us a great tour of the offices. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and did some more Miss America merchandise shopping. I realized I hadn’t bought the tie yet, so I got one for my dad! Then we were off to famous Boardwalk Hall where we got a tour of the facilities and actually walked across the stage where so many Miss America's were crowned. Let me tell you, the stage is just as big as the honor of being Miss America; being there was certainly one of my favorite parts of the weekend. We completed our boardwalk visit by taking a dip in the ocean and signing autographs. From there we went to the Sheraton Hotel which has a collection of shoes from previous Miss America parades on display, all lavishly decorated and brimming with personality. I really miss the parade; I remember attending it annually when I was a child, and it was an unforgettable experience. We ended the day with a submarine sandwich from the Whitehouse Sub Shop; I was nearly too exhausted to chew, and Atlantic City subs take a lot of chewing, supposedly something to do with the effect of the ocean air on the rolls while they are being cooked, or at least that’s what my mother always said.

Saturday we participated in an event called "To Melmark, With Love." Melmark is a school in Pennsylvania for children and adults with developmental disorders. They have an interesting and innovative program called The Meadows which allows their students to actually own stock in their own craft business; they produce their own goods, sell them locally, and earn their own paychecks. I think that is an incredibly valuable program because everyone enjoys the successful feeling of creating a beautiful product and selling it. We began our day at Melmark with a mini show in which each contestant performed her talent. The crowd was so appreciative and warm I could have sung for them all day. After the show we signed autographs and ate lunch with some of the residents. Then—how about a pool party? It was a great afternoon. After leaving Melmark, we had a little down time (something I’m beginning to appreciate) before preparing for the evening activities: a mock interview/press conference followed by talent performance for several dozen of Valerie's close friends. Admittedly, I was a little nervous about doing a press conference style interview; I had never done something like that before, but once I got in front of everyone, my nerves melted away. (I even managed to look calm when someone asked me to name the three bodies of water in the District of Columbia, and I realized my bathtub probably wasn’t going to count.) Later, we mingled with Val’s friends, signed a few more autographs, and dropped into our beds. And I thought Friday had been tiring!

Sunday morning, we went to Sweet and Sassy, a classy beauty salon for little girls that was sponsoring “A Day of Confidence” for local Special Olympics participants. Each Miss America contestant chose a topic to speak on, mine was Confidence in Public Speaking. After we talked with the girls about our topics, we watched as they had their hair done. It was fun to see everyone have such a blast in the salon. (Men do not know what they are missing.) The Special Olympics women were so beautiful on the inside and outside! We put on a runway show at the end of the day, and the women were radiating with confidence.

From there, we began saying our goodbyes. The Maine Invitational was a wonderful experience where I got my first opportunity to meet some of my fellow Miss America sisters and work with some great local organizations doing valuable community work. It was a spectacular weekend and a special thanks goes out to Valerie (I only wish I had time to describe her lovely stone house and beautiful gardens for you); her unceasing work and interest in the Miss America Organization help make it such an incredible and important organization.