Spokane Adventure!

Hi again!

So the weekend of the 20th-22nd of February was a busy one...That Saturday, I had a dance competition at Kamiakin...From Kamiakin we drove to Spokane. I then attended the Miss Spokane and Miss Spokane's Outstanding Teen pageant! It was sooo fun! I got to sing my new talent song, "Somewhere" from West Side Story. My mother cried as usual. It was great to see Brit and Kenzie, Miss Spokane's OT and Miss Spokane 09! Also, a huge congrats to the new titleholders Kylee and Julia! They are both sweet girls! Julia rocked her cheer dance;)

(Above) The whole gang and Bev!

Some of my favorite people:)

Fave picture of the night! Devanni and I rarely wear our sashes...so we decided it would just be easier to bring one and share!

Singing my new talent song!

Chatting it up with a princess onstage!

During the show I also got the chance to talk to former Miss WA Fianna Dickson. I found that we have a lot in common! She was on the drill team in high school, and also coached a "Mr." pageant of her own! Not to mention she went to the best college ever...Gonzaga University! I have had my eyes set on Gonzaga for as long as I can remember...not only do they have an amazing Pre-Law program that I would love to get into...but they are a Jesuit school, meaning that they focus on the human character as a whole. Instead of focusing only on education, they want you to grow spiritually and in your community as well! The students there are very service oriented! It's perfect for me:) Gonzaga has my platform and my career all in one! Fianna explained that when she won Miss Washington, they paid for the remaining two years of her college, as well as her masters degree! I received scholarship money from the teen program, and Gonzaga is offering me $10,000 a year to attend their school...however I will still need more in the future. I know competing in the Miss WA pageant will be very beneficial to me for the scholarship money! It's programs like this that are going to make my dream a reality! I toured the school this weekend and felt so at home:) Can't wait to be a part of the Spokane community...perhaps I will be running for Miss Spokane in a few years? We'll see;)

Love lots!

Reina

Miss WAOT09

UPDATE!

Hello Everyone!

Now that I am out of hibernation, I will give you an update on what's been going on! The Mr. WV pageant ended on February 10th! I am free at last! This year was a huge success, it's the first year we have ever sold out of tickets! The show went smoothly and I couldn't have asked for more! We raised $15,000 this year, which was great for the short amount of time the boys were given this year. Below are a few of our final fundraisers....

Sucker Sales was a new fundraiser this year. The boys sold over 600 suckers in less than 2 hours! I quickly ordered another box...

Student Vs. Staff BBgame...this was one of the most comical events! The boys played basketball against the teachers of West Valley High School....and the teachers kicked butt! Students could pay money to play in place of the Mr. WV boys...for example, $5 for 5 minutes of playing time. It was a great way to get the whole school involved!

Zesta Cucina Appetizer Night- This was a fun event! We teamed up with a local restaurant called Zesta Cucina's. The boys waited tables for the night, and whenever a table bought the "Firecracker Shrimp" Appetizer, we got the proceeds. Not to mention...the restaurant manager Lucho fed us afterwards for doing such a great job! The way through my heart is through my stomach....:) I do love pasta!

Penny Drive- This year we decided to incorporate the younger generation into volunteering as well! Like I often say, anyone can be a volunteer;) One of my contestants and I went to Apple Valley Elementary and spoke at an assembly to the kids about Children's Miracle Network. Surprisingly, many of the children knew what CMN was, or had even been patients there! They were very excited to participate in our penny drive. Really, I think they just had a blast dropping money into their cans. We divided classrooms into teams to make it a fun, friendly competition!

And here we are at pageant night! The picture of me below is me at my "station." We had really cool headsets....I felt very official. Not to mention it was fun talking into it! The boys had a great time! We had some interesting talents: Gorilla Wrestling, Accordion playing...the list goes on. One guy even blew up a balloon using propane and a candle...possibly a fire hazard! But it certainly was a crowd pleaser:) CONGRATULATIONS to Preston Wade! Our winner for Mr. Congeniality and our Mr. West Valley 2010! I got so much positive feedback on the pageant this year! I'm sad it's over...but I'm happy to be sleeping again!

Love!

Reina

Miss WAOT09

What I've been up to....

Hello everyone!

Today I have a full day ahead of me! To give you all a little bit of background, I've been the coordinator of the "Mr. West Valley Pageant" for three years now. Twelve boys are voted on by the senior ladies to complete three months of fundraisers that ends in a "pageant" where all funds are presented to Children's Miracle Network. I put a LOT of work into this pageant. It's my big community service for the year...after this is over I plan on hibernating for a week with some Ben and Jerry's... But I wanted to give you all an overview of what I have been doing...

We revealed our new contestants on November 20th. It took me over 20 hours to put together the video to announce them! I probably could have done something less elaborate...but I couldn't resist! We created a pop up book with the boys as characters:)

Our next event was the CMN tour. The new contestants got a look at where the funds they were raising go! Here are a few pics from the event...

Here are the boys at their Bowl-A-Thon. With their awesome new t-shirts:)

Next the boys got to be a part of slugbugs! Slugbugs is a basketball program for children with disabilities. They meet with their "mentors" every Saturday to play and just have fun! The guys had a blast! Several parents came up to me commenting on how well they were doing with the kids! I felt like a proud mom:)

Just like at a real pageant, the boys have dance rehearsal...often in my garage on a Saturday morning. Blech. Sometimes, it helps if we have donuts.

Here are the boys at their Dash 4 Cash. They performed their "Girls Just wanna have fun" routine. Even though their music cut out, they kept on singing! They raised over 750$ in 2 minutes!

This year we put together a new fundraiser. A Jamboree between the other pageants. Mr. Davis, Mr. Ike, and Mr. East Valley came to compete against us. We may have lost the basketball game, but we rocked the dance competition! Not to mention, West Valley took the trophy for most money raised! Way to go guys:)

We have done a few other fundraisers, and have two more this week...but unfortunately I have not had time to upload those pictures to my computer yet. The pageant is on February 10th at my high school, I can't wait! But at the same time, it's sad that this will be my last year:( My apologies for the long post...Talk to you soon!

Love,

Reina

Hello everyone!

yay! First blog post as Miss Washington's Outstanding Teen!

I feel like I should make some sort of introduction...so here goes:)

I am Reina Almon, a senior at West Valley High School. I've competed in pageants since the age of 13, but never felt as welcome and at home with a pageant system until I competed in the Miss Washington's Outstanding Teen program. My platform is called "Get Movin', Volunteer" in support of teen volunteerism. So far, I've had the opportunity to make appearances in a few local parades, and a some local pageants. Right now however, most of my time and devotion is going to my favorite volunteer program of my year! The Mr. West Valley Pageant! I will go into more depth later....:) For now, over and out! I am off to bed!