Almost time for Miss Nebraska!

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

Hang Up and Drive!

Hello all!

Recently, I have been doing a lot of speaking to college and high school students about my platform, "Hang Up and Drive." I talked to several greek houses at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, as well as at Weslyan University.  Last week I gave a seminar at the Nebraska DECA State Conference, and today, I spoke at my very own high school, Ralston! It has been great, spreading the word on such an important topic.  I have had over 200 people sign the pledge not to text and drive and my goal is for that number to keep growing and growing as my year goes on! 

Here I am speaking at a wonderful sorority at UNL, Alpha Phi! The girls were so attentive and respectful, I had a great time!

Last weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to give back to the organization that has given so much to me, DECA! I was invited to give a "Hang Up and Drive" seminar at the Nebraska State DECA Conference, and it was so wonderful to see all of the motivated, competitive, and professional high school students and to be able to speak to them on such an important topic!

I thought it was so cute that the DECA mascots finally got official DECA blazers!

Giving my seminar..

Here, I am explaining the activity the kids were about to do.  I had them complete tasks while distracted by something else, to prove that it is hard to focus on more than one thing at a time!

 Here I am with my official name tag that mentioned me as Miss Star City and it had an official "Presenter" tag on the bottom!

 Every year, 2 scholarships are given at the State DECA Conference in my brother's memory.  Here is my brother Ryan and I presenting the awards..

It was so great to be back at the State Conference!

Today, I went back to my home school of Ralston High School! I got to speak to all the the students as well as some of the teachers that I had in high school! It was really cool to be back and I was so excited to even have some of my old teachers sign the pledge not to text and drive!

Couldn't figure out how to flip this picture! But here I am on stage in the Ralston High School Auditorium!

Here are some of the students repeating the pledge after me!

I have much to do still, to prepare for Miss Nebraska in June, but I am happy to be out and about spreading the word on my platform!

That's All For Now!

Rachel

American Heart Association Heart Ball - New York Style!

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to Albany New York to volunteer and perform at the 2011 American Heart Association Heart Ball.  I wouldn't normally travel all the way to New York for something like this, but my sister Tina recently moved out to New York and is in charge of the event.  I had a great time volunteering with some Miss New York USA contestants as well as performing a fire twirling routine in front of all of the Heart Association members, sponsors, volunteers, and families!

My brother in law Christian and I ran the bid boards! It was so fun to get to see him and work with him to raise as much money as possible for the American Heart Association!

The ball was at a beautiful facility called "Hall of Springs" in Saratoga Springs, NY

Here I am with the 2011 Heart Princess, Chloe.  She survived a (could be) fatal heart defect at birth.  She is the reason we have these types of events.  Her story is amazing!

Here I am with the 2010 Heart Princess!

With the doctor to both of the heart princess, this man is a hero!

I had a blast performing my fire twirling routine, as I always do! Here are some photos and a video!

See the video HERE:

I am always very inspired when I attend American Heart Association events such as this one.  The room was filled with amazing people who have either suffered a heart condition, have saved someone that is suffering a heart condition, rise money and donate to the cause, friends, family, and more! Tina has been involved with the AHA for 4 years (first in Omaha, then Lincoln, and now in New York!) I love helping her with the events and being involved with such a great organization!