Yes it's true! I will be leaving for The Miss Nebraska Pageant in a little less than two weeks! I am so excited and so ready for it! In the mean time, I have been keeping super busy with intense baton twirling practice (to prepare for nationals, which may then send us to Switzerland for worlds!), performances, auditioning for Husker Twirler, appearances, and getting ready for my cousin's wedding this weekend for which I am honored to be a bridesmaid!! :)
Back in April, The Stepper-Ettes were asked to perform at the Grand Opening of the Ameritrade Stadium downtown Omaha! It was such an honor, and the best part: THE GIRLS GOT TO MEET MISS AMERICA! :) With over 300 Stepper-Ettes present, I have never heard as loud of a cheer as when Teresa entered the room! It was so exciting for all the little ones, and they all got to have a picture with her!
Jennifer Curtis and I practicing our fire twirling before the Ameritrade performance!
Some of the Stepper-Ettes practicing in our studio before heading to the performance!
My parents introducing Teresa to the rest of the Stepper-Ettes!
Jennifer Curtis, Teresa Scanlan (Miss America) and I posing for a quick picture before the grand opening!
Some of the fire twirlers!
This year, the Stepper-Ette Baton recitals (there are 3) were the most successful we have ever had in over 35 years! All of the routines went beautifully, and the crowd went absolutely crazy for our net routines which we are trying to win nationals with to get us to the World Championships in Switzerland 2012! I also had the opportunity to perform my Miss Nebraska talent routine for 3,000 people on Saturday, and it went so well and I absolutely cannot wait to perform it on the Miss Nebraska stage!! Most of the costumes for our routines are being kept secret, but I can share two pictures with you all!
Here I am with some girls that I have been twirling with my entire life. I could not ask for better teammates or a better "twirling family!"
Here I am with my sister Tami! Tami, my mom, and I have been working very hard to make the studio stronger than ever this year!
The past two days, I have had the honor of working with the Children's Miracle network with two very fun events! Yesterday, I volunteered at an annual golf tournament the Children's Hospital has to raise money for the Children's Foundation. I got to work with so many awesome people and I helped them raise more money than any year before! (I was heckling people to buy raffle tickets, ball drop slots, and putting contest tickets!) I had a blast working with the amazing people from Children's Hospital!
With Carly, another volunteer with the Children's Hospital, we were the best salespeople ever!
This is Brialee, and she is a much better golfer than I will ever be! It was so fun to get to meet her and talk with her about her future dream of becoming Miss Nebraska someday!
With some of the golfers..
it doesn't look like much, but there are over 100 raffle tickets in there, SCORE! :)
Today was also an amazing day spent with the people of Children's Hospital! I got to visit with patients, and we all got together for an hour of arts and crafts! It is always so amazing to get to meet "Miracle Children" and talk to them!
Here is one of the paper bag puppets I made! The kids were so creative! There were frogs, dogs, cats, owls, mice, cheetahs, and dinosaurs made out of paper bags!
This is Alyssa, one of the employees at Children's Hospital that help me put everything together these past two days!
What a great day at Children's!
That's all I have for now! I have a busy two weeks ahead of me, I will make sure to do one last post before I leave for Miss Nebraska June 5th! Hope you enjoyed reading!
Rachel
Miss Star City
