Two Pageants in a Row

It was a typical busy pageant day for Ms Earth the day before mother's day.  I managed to squeeze in two pageants in one day.  I started out in Ontario at the California Kisses pageant where I was not only a judge and the tabulator but my Daughter was royalty and helped out at crowning.  At 2 years old she is becoming a pro at giving out awards because she has worked at so many pageants with mommy.  This was a free pageant, no one paid entry or sponsors fee's to compete.  California Kisses is Semi-Glitz and gave away toys, candy, beautiful crowns and gift cards to their winners.  Helping out judging was Tiffany Knight Miss Orange County US International and the MC was Jessica Aguirre California Hi Point Champion for Dream Girls U.S.A.  Congrats to all the contestants and royalty, you all did a great job!

My next stop was back home in San Bernardino at the Mr Cardinal City Pageant.  When I decided to go to this pageant I had no clue what I was in store for and had never heard of this pageant before.  Well it turns out that this pageant is for the students at San Bernardino High School.  There is a pageant for the boys and the girls and this just happened to be the night for the young men.  The winner and his court represent their high school as the face of San Bernardino High.  They also represent the city at various events and do community service, while serving as role models.  The winners even now receive a cash scholarship.  Well let me tell you that this is the first time I have been to pageant of this kind ever (all men only) and I was very impressed.  Being that I work as a juvenile probation officer I come into contact with many young men on the opposite side of the "achievement" spectrum so it is a pleasure to see so many with very respectable goals and aspirations, with the GPA's to back them up.  The guys competed on stage in sportswear (bravo to the contestant that wore his marching band uniform, it is very much a sport in my book), formal wear and onstage question.  Also their activities, accomplishments and GPA's were highlighted as well.  There was also a ton of pageant queens and kings in attendance.

My favorite contestant was 1st runner-up Pierre Morris.  He wore a football uniform for sportswear, wants to be a surgeon and has a 4.4 GPA.  He blew me away with his onstage question answer where he discussed his career ambitions and opening a pro bono medical clinic so he can provide medical services for those who cant afford to pay for them, and how the less fortunate are people too and they have needs.  But ultimately the title went to Gustavo Alvarez who was asked about president Obama and how he is doing with his presidency. Gus went on to discuss several relevant issues including immigration.  WOW  I forgot for a minute that these guys are just teenagers. 

I think the best part of the evening was the opening number.  These guys practiced everyday at school for 12 weeks and they looked great on stage with their men in black routine. I think they did a better job than I have seen some of the ladies do at pageants past. They even entered the theater from the back with some handing out flowers and some fake money to all the ladies.  It was a riot and all the young ladies in the room were screaming as if they were pre-teen's at a Justin Bieber concert.

My hat is definitely off to you Jamie Rios not only for putting on a great pageant but also for all you do with the young men.  I know what pageants can do for young girls to boost their self esteem, poise, goals, careers and more and I saw this difference at your pageant.  Some of the young men beamed with pride and confidence and were excited about doing community service.  With all the hard work that goes into putting on a pageant and being able to achieve all of these things with young men is not easy but I saw it first hand!  Congratulations!

With Mercedes Harvey Miss California Teen Achieve

Here we are with Dar'rell Jones he was 1st runner-up to Mr Cardinal 2010

There was so many visiting royalty that we couldn't all fit on the picture so here I am in part 1

Here is part 2 and my favorite Pierre is standing in the center

Who is Lana Henry - My Bio

Who is Lana Henry besides just being Ms Earth 2011?  Well I decided to post my bio so that you can learn a little bit more about me and my life, so enjoy!

Lana Henry is a resident of the city of San Bernardino.  This former model has been involved in pageantry for over 20 years.  She has held several titles locally, nationally and internationally and a few of her titles include: Miss California Teen of the Nation, Miss Chino, Miss Upland, Miss California Coed, Miss West Coast, Miss International Beauty, Ms American Rose, International Cinderella Woman, World’s Universal Girl, Ms Route 66, Royal Essence Grand Supreme, Gold Coast Elegant Lady, Ms American Coed Woman and Ms Earth 2011. Lana has experience and titles in various types of pageant systems including Glitz, Natural, Talent, Scholarship, MAO, and USA.  Competing extensively all over the United States and Mexico, she has even had the honor of representing our country at the Miss International Pageant in Tokyo, Japan.  Being named one of the top 10 women in Pageantry for the year 2003 by a top media source in Asia, is just a small piece of her successful pageant career.

Lana is a professional entertainer and a classically trained singer, who sings in 6 different languages, performing regularly at various events and functions around the country.  Holding advanced degrees in performing arts, political science with a pre law concentration, and a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership, Lana works as a Los Angeles County Juvenile Deputy Probation Officer (13 years) and teaches in the criminal justice department at the University of Phoenix.  Lana’s has dedicated her life to empowering juvenile delinquents and developing gender specific programming for young female offenders.  As a much sought after performer, speaker, and educator, she stays active in California and other states around the country providing a countless number of hours to the youth of our communities. 

With a passion for service and leadership and desiring to utilize all of her talents, Lana runs her own business.  Pageant Style Productions specializing in event planning and preparing pageant hopefuls for upcoming competitions. Lana personally believes in the power of pageantry and works with young girls and women encouraging their participation in pageantry and community service.  On top of all these activities Lana is also a busy single mother to a 2 year old daughter named Bianca who also compete's in pageants.

Miss California Teenager 2011 Pageant

This weekend I went into Pageant coach mode as my 13 year old cousin competed in her 1st Pageant Miss California Teenager.  There was 160 girls vying for this title and the queen wins a $10,000 scholarship (wow), while the top 10 also receive substantial scholarship awards.  The competition is based on evening gown, onstage speech and onstage question and is open to girls from the ages of 13 to 19.  This pageant has been around many years and unfortunately I didn't find out about it until I was 20 years old so I missed the boat at taking a crack at the title back in my Miss American Coed days (by the way for you pageant junkies, the top 5 girls that placed this year have competed at NAM & ACP). I am very proud of my cousin Zya Houston who did a great job at her first competition ever!  She represented the City of Los Angeles very well!  Not only did I help Zya and her roommate with their speeches but I did their make-up for finals too (of course I had to take it easy and not go overboard because they are still middle schoolers).

The outgoing gorgeous queen Mary-Kate FitzPatrick told the audience about her fantastic year as queen.  She even did her first commercial for a cosmetics company from the bay area during her reign.  I have seen it happen time and time again, once you capture the title so many doors open up for you.  In my 20+ years of pageantry I have seen titleholders come back with modeling contracts, regular series roles on TV, recording contracts, and even husbands to be.  And I am sure you will see Mary-Kate out there in the modeling world in the future.  Not only is she beautiful on the outside but the inside as well and she has an inspiring story about her determination to win the pageant and her great stride to losing weight to do so!  Bravo to Mary-Kate and the Miss Teenage California Pageant for a job well done!

Grilled Cheese Invitational

OMG! I have fallen in Love with CHEESE! Who knew there were so many ways to make a grill cheese sandwich?  What an adventure my daughter and I had at the Grill Cheese Invitational where we had a chance to stuff ourselves silly with cheese! Now out of the over 200 competitors unfortunately I didn't get to taste as many as I wanted as a registered member of the judging society but we did have our fair share along with all of the other free food goodies and food trucks you could sample from.  But it sure would have been nice to be an executive judge so I could have attempted to taste all 200+ hundred sandwiches.  The best ones were by far in the Honey Pot category, this was the desert category. Now if you are wondering how in the world do you put cheese in a desert and make it taste good well remember there are many different kinds of cheese out there in the world and not just your cheddar varieties.  In this category cheeses like mascarpone, marzipan, brie, goat cheese, cream cheese and the like were used.  I must say in addition to getting my fill of cheese this day I was educated and entertained and this cheesyful event that was packed to the brim with cheese lovers.  They had a really cool marching band called march forth with stilt walkers that performed and I only have one word to describe them, AWESOME! There was also a neat poetry contest all about cheese and an outrageous costume contest where Jesus Christ was the winner (the day before Easter how ironic). I think the only thing this event is missing is the little miss and mister grill cheese pageant.  Hummm, have I found a new calling??????????

The Photo of the Day

lol, Bianca is modeling her cheese sample (I love cheese too mommy, see "cheese") she ate about 10 of them

Earth Day 2011

April 22nd is Earth Day which was created back in the 1970's to inspire awareness and appreciation for our planet Earth and is celebrated in more than 175 countries around the world.  It is is no secret that our environment is facing a global crisis after many years of abuse and miseducation and Earth Day is the one day we as human beings around the world dedicate to doing something about it. This day of action results in many consumer campaigns to be green and tree planting but protecting our planet takes much more than that.  This year Earth Day happened to fall on gloomy day which kept most folks at home or indoors but a few did show up the Earth Day Celebration at the Promenade on the Peninsula Mall in Rancho Palos Verdes sponsored by Hier Children's Clothing store.  This was an opportunity for the kids not only to meet Ms Earth and partake of a few yummy party snacks but also to learn about the environment and plant and decorate their own pot of flowers.  There are so many simple ways that we can all be more friendly to our environment and adapt to the changes that will inevitably come about if we open our minds and put forth a little effort.  Whether its water conservation, working with an organization to preserve wildlife, recycling (not just the regular stuff like bottles but just about everything can be recycled), or encouraging your organization to become "paperless", we can all do something to preserve the environment and its raw materials and natural resources. Back in 19** (yes I did that on purpose) I was the lone recipient of a special earth day award from my school Magnolia Jr High for my recycling efforts.  I have been a proponent of recycling for as long as I can remember.  So the next time you get ready to throw something away think about this:

• Junk mail is paper and can be recycled along with phonebooks and other paper products 
• Old clothes/furniture/shoes can go to goodwill and the salvation army
• Old jewelry can be sold at cash for gold locations that are popping up everywhere
• Personal/beauty products that you may no longer want can be donated to women's shelters
• Food garbage can be composted so it doesn't contribute to the 40% of landfill space it takes up and methane gas it produces, this way it will convert back into rich soil which is great for planting in your garden
• Old cars can be donated to charity or sold to car yards that can salvage the parts for others before recycling the metal

And these are just a few of the wonderful ways we can reduce and reuse and I know there are plenty more.  Do you have any other great ideas on how to help out planet, If so email them to me at: LHenry3198@aol.com

The Fallbrook Avocado Festival

Once again what a busy weekend this has turned out to be.  My Saturday started out with my Daughter competing at a Pageant.  She won best hair, 3rd alternate for back cover, and overall tiny queen for Desert Pageants.  This is a great system that I discovered as a judge back in 2004.  All of the desert queens have a chance to participate in community service and other activities to stay involved and give back to their communities.  They have been around for 14 years but unfortunately after being diagnosed with a rare eye disease (Macular Telangiectasia), the director Stephanie Gregory is retiring from pageantry.  I know so many young ladies out there are going to be saddened to see the pageant come to an end.  The director Ms Stephanie runs a true natural pageant where everyone walks away a winner.  She doesn't believe in only crowning one girl who is the prettiest, has the most expensive dress, or the best hair/make-up/flippers, she believes in giving as many crowns to as many deserving young ladies as possible.  In my daughter's division alone all 5 of the kids walked away with a crown and a tittle with my daughter winning the overall crown.  So many girls in the high desert area have grown up and become role models in this pageant system which has instilled so many values in these young ladies that they may not have gotten anywhere else except from participating in activity such as a pageant.  So a big THANK YOU for everything Ms Stephanie and know that you will truly be missed by so many!

After a busy Saturday morning my next stop was the Orange Muffin Festival in the city of Redlands.  This event is a fundraiser for Plymouth Village, a continuing care retirement community.  Over 12,000 muffins were made and sold this day (wow) and they were completely out by the time I arrived at noon.  This event has continued to grow over the years from its first go round selling only 575 muffins.  So I guess I will have to wait to try again next year for some delicious orange muffins :(

After attending a few more family events this weekend it was time to make the drive down towards San Diego to go to the city of Fallbrooks 25th Annual Avocado Festival.  Of course the very first thing I spot when I arrived to the festival was ... not avocado's but the Miss Fallbrook Pageant Queens of course.  So after stopping to pose for a picture with the girls wearing the only green shirt I own in honor of the avocados in the blistering heat, I was off to explore what this event had to offer.  I expected to be completely overwhelmed with a feast of avocado based foods but I was surprised to see only a few selections.  There were tons of booths that you see at your typical fairs and festivals including various restaurants, artists, community organizations and more.  There was also a kids zone complete with rides, a bounce house and plenty of stages for entertainment including the Little Miss and Mr Avocado Pageant.  One aspect of the festival I must applaud the organizers for was including several booths for organizations signing up attendees to become registered voters.  So many US Citizens fail to become involved in the political process by doing something as simple as voting but they continue to complain about the state of the economy, health care, and more.  So bravo to the citizens of Fallbrook for working hard to make their voices heard!

Mrs California United States Pageant

And the new Mrs California United States 2011 is......Christy Van Der Westhuizen!  OH MY GOODNESS were the first words out of my mouth followed by a very loud screaming sessions.  I am so elated that my pageant buddy Christy just won this coveted title and a chance to go to Las Vegas to compete for the Mrs Untied States title.  Now Christy and I go way back to a time before marriage and kids, a time long ago before I aged out of the Miss America system.  We were even roommates some years back in Mazatlan, Mexico where we both competed in the Reina Del Pacifico Pageant.  Over the years we have kept in touch, both continued to compete and to cheer each other on.  I couldn't be more proud that night when they called my old rommie's name.  I have no doubt she will do very well at the National Pageant and maybe even fall in the footsteps of two of my dear friends and role models, Andrea Preuess and Janice McQueen-Ward whom have won the National Mrs Unite States Pageant.  Christy truly did shine on stage but she also had some tough competition and a tough judging panel to impress including another pageant buddy of mine from back in the day Toay Foster-Ortiz, a former Miss California USA and Local MAO title holder.  But I must not only send congratulations to Christy and all the contestants for a job well done but also to the pageant director Janice McQueen Ward.  This was a classy, well organized, model pageant for any director to aspire to recreate, so bravo to Janice for a job well done!