October 19, 2004

Welcome to the first edition of Miss Florida USA’s (and Miss Florida Teen USA’s!) Face & Places. The weekly news of everything relating to our pageant, alumni, friends and family! We think our fans will enjoy being up to date! This week we visited The Hollywood Police Departments Salute to the Stars event along with the first ever Miss Hialeah Teen USA Pageant.

 

Thursday Night at The Boys & Girls Club Gala:

What a delight it was to see two of our favorite Miss Florida America’s on this lovely evening. Shauna Pinder (FL MAO ’03) was quite the surprise and looked fantastic. We had a chance to speak with both her and her mother and we are delighted to say she is getting better every day. She has been frequenting South Florida as she is still under the care of doctors in the region. Her vocal chords are sounding better but it was very hard to hear over the crowds. She has a new business card touting her acting, motivational speaking, emceeing and modeling. Seems she has so many opportunities in front of her and she’s not slowing down. Way to go Shauna!

 

 

 

Shauna Pinder (FLMAO '03) and Melissa Witek share a photo opportunity Thursday night (left)

Katherine Cue and Anastagia Pierre before the Miss Hialeah Teen USA Pageant.

 

 

 

We also had some time to catch up with Jenna Edwards (FL MAO ’04) who represented the state so well at Miss America. She’s glad to be back home in Miami and is currently working and modeling in Miami. She also had time to speak and get to know her counterpart in Miss Florida USA 2005 Melissa Witek. As always we had our trusty camera with us so enjoy the pictures!

 

 

The Mayor of Hollywood Mara Giulianti

and Melissa Witek enjoy the Boy's & Girls Gala.

 

 

 

 

Miss Hialeah Teen USA:

Saturday afternoon was spent with our Anastagia Pierre at the first preliminary pageant of the season. As soon as I entered the hall I was greeted by the lovely Cue Girls – Carmen and Katherine (FTUSA ’04 4^th ru)! What a great pageant they ran for the young ladies of Hialeah. Mom (Carmen) and daughter (Katherine) both look great and the place was packed and a complete sellout! Katherine caught us up with her career. I always knew she was a talented singer (I have a demo tape of her a 12 years old!) but it seems that her career is about to break. She was speaking of hearing her first single on Miami radio that day. Congratulations Katherine, we will be looking for you on MTV any day!

 

This was just the beginning of an alumni meeting! When the judges gathered I was graced by two beautiful Miss Florida USA alumni, Ivis Guerra (FLUSA ’98) and Leslie Vazquez-Colina (T15 FLUSA’94). Ivis is still involved in the pageant game via coaching, judging and directing. She is currently International Business Development Representative for The Baptist Health System of South Florida. She looks great and is excited to be involved with Miss South Florida USA coming up this January in Coconut Grove!

 

 

 

Proud Miss Florida USA alumni at Miss Hialeah Teen USA.

Noelle Iglesias, Ivis Guerra and Leslie Vazquez have become lifelong friends through pageantry!

 

 

 

 

Leslie Vazquez-Colina reminisced about her Miss Florida USA pageant days and caught us up with her career. She is working for Colonial Bank in Miami and continues to work as a part time actress and model. She is also the mother of two and looks like she can compete tomorrow. Leslie keeps up with past pageant alumni Karent Sierra (FLUSA 1^st ru 1994) who is now a practicing dentist in Coral Gables.

 

After the show a third alumni Noelle Iglesias (FLUSA ’01) came over and said hello. Seems that Noelle is still involved in pageantry as a coach and director. Before we could catch up she had left the stage and was swept away in the crowd. Luckily our trusty camera was their to capture the moment!

 

Congratulations To Kristen Berset, first runner-up in Miss World USA!

We have learned that our Miss Florida USA 2004, Kristen Berset came very close to representing The United States at the Miss World Pageant only to be announced the first runner-up in Dallas this weekend. Congratulations Kristen!

 

Alumni News Wanted!

If you know of any Miss Florida USA alumni in the news please drop us an email to feature them in future articles. Email all info to info@missfloridausa.com! Until next week here to good pageantry!