Miss Florida USA Faces

The South Florida USA family was out in full force on a “school night” as Miss Coral Gables USA made quite the impression on our Miami Dade fans with a fantastic pageant and turnout for this first time event. Citrus Productions and Manny Rodriquez really pulled off quite an encore to one memorable Miss Florida USA season.

The new Miss Coral Gables USA with her biggest fan! (left) & Ms. Diaz; Miss Castellano and Ms. Coleman were in the front row

With the big seminar day beginning Saturday morning, the Miss Florida USA contestants had a chance to attend an optional meet and greet at Carlton’s Restaurant and Jazz Bar in Hallandale Beach. It was great to see so many of the delegates, preliminary directors, Miss Florida USA family and friends gather for fellowship before the pageantry began.

This past weekend a very exciting Queen for a Day visit was held in Fort Myers at Healthpark Hospital. Miss Florida Teen USA Contestants Jillian Wunderlich (Fort Myers Teen USA) and Riley Nowell (Miss South West Florida Teen USA) spread joy and tiara’s all around at this special day of giving the power of the tiara.

Here is a note from the Wunderlich Family to descrive their event. “It was a very emotional heart rendering experience to see how brave these (young) girls are. They are so special! Jillian (and Riley) just fell in love with them. They had different tables set up where the girls could have makeup done, nails, arts and crafts. They had lunch, crowning and cake. There is a little girl who had an emergency and had to go to another hospital for treatment and could not attend. Jilllian and Riley will be going back to the hospital to crown her we are going to have a little party for her then.”

A warm thank you goes out to these special ambassadors of our Miss Florida USA family. It just doesn’t get anymore moving when you improve a young life in such a time of need. It’s efforts like these that make you think we can improve the world.

- Kudos to Miss Jacksonville USA 2007 Tara Chandler for taking photos pro bono for Dignity U Wear, a non-profit organization for the homeless. Many volunteers come to help out with sorting the brand new clothes, picking out the damaged, and putting the different sizes into separate boxes, donated by various sponsors. Showing here are clothes donated from Sean Combs' clothesline. Way to get involved and doing good in your community Tara!

- Kudos to Miss Carnavale USA Nathalie Pozo who was a guest speaker at career day for Miami Dade elementary students. She spoke about refinement, etiquette and manners and then had scenarios to test out their manners. And of course all the little girls were so excited to try on the crown! Way to be a role model Nathalie!

- Under the Did You Know Category; Miss Pembroke Pines USA Lindsay Shockey sent us a picture from a Japanese tea ceremony that her college class participated in this week in Tokyo. Next week she will be in China and will get a once in a lifetime chance to walk on the Great Wall. Hoping she brings us all back t-shirts! Way to do some great traveling Lindsay!

- Did You Know Halavin Pageant Sponsor Fierte Cosmetics now has a South Florida store. Here are some pictures of their grand opening Sunday June 4^th as several of our South Florida USA family were in attendance. Good luck to the very nice directors of Fierte Cosmetics and wish them great success!

The group shot included; Angel Coleman, Miss Oakland Park USA, Jennifer Olkinintsky, Miss Broward

County USA, Amy Diaz, Miss Homestead/Florida Keys USA, Brad Koogler, Fierté Director of Marketing,

Angie Halavin, Halavin Productions, Inc., Gregory Yap Sam, CEO Fierté Cosmetics, Alicia Castellano,

Miss Pembroke Pines Teen USA, Danyel Crecelius, Miss Homestead/Florida Keys Teen USA, Christian Ericksen,

Contestants of the first-ever Miss Chechnya beauty pageant, Madina Israilova, center, and an unidentified girl, left, are seen in Grozny with security officers and the war-shattered buildings in the background. The beauty contest was won by Zamira Dzhabrailova, a 15-year high-school student, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. With Russian forces unable to drive rebels from the republic's southern mountains or purge them from the capital, Grozny, officials in recent years have tried to undermine the separatists with initiatives to restore a measure of civil order.

» Pageant News Wanted!

Are you a titleholder or at large delegate who is making appearances or doing good things in the community? We would love to tell all of the Miss Florida USA Family your story. Send pictures and updates to telair@aol.com as we feature everything Miss Florida USA on Friday’s at Faces & Places.

» 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!

PICTURE OF THE WEEK!

This week the committee that is responsible for this heady title has appointed our Miss Florida Teen USA Jennifer Wooten with the award as she looked stunning on the Hollywood Production Center Soundstages recently and the group would like to share with you her beauty. Look for a full report on her travels next week here at Faces & Places! Until then Miss Wooten should be content with the title of â€œPicture of The Week!