I am sitting in a nice little hotel in the Haitian coastal town of Jacmel, reflecting back on the crazy last couple weeks I have had. From speaking at
schools to being dunked in the water tank at Relay for Life, it has been a couple of very blessed several days, full of many exciting appearances!
For those not familiar with the world and language of the
Miss America Organization, an “appearance” is an opportunity for a titleholder
to volunteer in a specific capacity within the community. With schools wrapping up their academic
years, and a number of summer events and festivals taking place, I have been
one incredibly fortunate individual with the opportunities I have been given
lately!
Ceremonial Opening of Moses Lake’s New Bike Sharrows: Okay, so admittedly, this event happened
about a month ago, but I forgot to mention it in my previous posts
(oops!). In order to become more
eco-friendly and bicycle aware, I am proud to say that my community has painted
sharrows on select lanes throughout the town!
The sharrows encourage citizens to ride their bicycles, provide safer
opportunities to do so, and remind drivers to be mindful of the bicyclists in
those lanes. On the day of the opening
ceremony, the city provided a helmet fitting, there was a bike rodeo for small
children, a semi-formal ceremony was held, and
then we all jumped on our bikes for a 5 mile bike ride around the town
using the newly designated “shared” lanes, and (relatively) new bike paths down
by the lake.
Building and Launching Bottle Rockets at Frontier Middle
School: For the record, in case you did
not know, I am a nerd. A BIG nerd,
particularly with regards to the sciences.
Having been raised in Moses Lake, I attended Frontier Middle School and
competed with their Science Olympiad team, and in the 6th grade had
the incredible opportunity of travelling to Washington D.C. and the University
of Delaware to compete at the National competition. In the last several years, I have had the
great privilege and joy of coaching Frontier’s Science Olympiad teams (off and
on, depending on my own education path), and have judged regional Science
Olympiad competitions. A week ago, I had
the incredible opportunity of once again return to Frontier in order to build
and launch bottle rockets with the 8th graders!
Mrs. Irwin’s 1st Grade Class: Mrs. Kristine Irwin is a good friend of mine,
and last week gave me the great honor of inviting me to speak to her 1st
grade class. After speaking to the class
for an hour about service to our community and our world, we went outside and
collected trash together as a demonstrated act of service to our school. Later, we had a great time in reading groups,
and then all played soccer together at recess!
Thank you, Kristine, for allowing me to play a small role in your incredible
students’ lives!
Speaking at Midway Elementary: After visiting Mrs. Irwin’s class the day
before, word got around to other teachers and students that Miss Moses Lake was
on campus. So, much to my excitement,
the principal of the school (and my previous Elementary school principal)
invited me to return the next day in order to go from class to class and speak
to the students. I spoke with every one
of the 1st through 5th grade classes about higher
education and service, and had a blast doing so! I also signed a year’s worth of autographs
and got a year’s quota of hugs in….but I was MORE than ready to turn around and
do it all again! I had SUCH a great experience,
and SO enjoyed my time loving on the students!
Frontier’s 8th Grade Field Day: As Frontier Middle School 8th
graders finished up their final week as middle schoolers, it was time to
celebrate! Upon showing up to speak with
one of the teachers who has been working on Haiti projects with me, I was
quickly whisked outside where I soon found myself strapped to an odd harness
contraption, stuck to a Velcro wall in a funky looking jump suit, dowsed with
water, and playing piano as part of an impromptu jam session (where, by the
way, I met some of the most talented students I have ever met in my life!). I LOVE Frontier students!
Picking up Haiti Funds from Chief Moses Middle School: After speaking to the Chief Moses Middle
School 8th graders about poverty around the world, the school (with
the leadership of the 8th graders) spent the last few months
collecting funds for young children to attend school in Haiti. Two days before I left for Haiti, I received
that precious e-mail asking me to stop by the school to pick-up the money
collected. To my great and humbled
amazement, these incredible students collected $798 to directly enable elementary
aged children in Haiti (who would not otherwise have the opportunity), to
attend school. Thank you Chief Moses
Middle School for your amazing hearts, and for humbly allowing me to be the
deliverer of your incredible act of compassion.
Relay for Life: I
want to thank the directors of Relay for Life for letting me take on such a
generous role in such an incredible event.
Miss Moses Lake’s Teen and I had a fabulous time signing-in survivors of
cancer. Living in a small community, I
was overwhelmed by how many survivors or cancer are within Moses Lake….many of
whom I have known for years and not known they fought cancer at some point in
their lives. After registration was
complete, I had the privilege of triumphantly reading off each of the survivors’
names during the survivor lap. Later, I
walked several laps (baton in hand), made and lit the candle in a luminary bag
in honor of my grandfather, and even took a turn in the dunking tank where
money for the American Cancer Society was raised with each ball thrown. This appearance, in many ways, was one of the most significant to me personally, yet. Thank you again, to those who allowed my involvement at the level that I was!
There have been a few other appearances, and I thank the
individuals at each for their gracious inclusion of me in their
gatherings. Unfortunately I am having to cut this short due to the internet going out here in Haiti! Look for another blog posting soon with what is going on here in Haiti, but for now, here is a link of an article just recently published on my history with Haiti and work within: http://www.windowmagazine.org/window/index.php?section=Stories&id=265
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