Miss Florida USA Faces

It’s always fun to look back on the year that was and 2006 was quite the year! With so many preliminary pageants it seemed like there was one every weekend which was so much fun. It was also great to see both our Miss Florida USA and Miss Florida Teen USA have success at their respective national pageants. But mostly it was a year of new and old friends who are all apart of our very special Miss Florida USA Family.

Enjoy the review we will publish the next few weeks and happy holiday’s to all!

May: After a successful trip from Baltimore it was time for a month of pageantry and community appearances. Amongst the appearances this month by our local titleholders included the Ft. Lauderdale Aids Walk and The Florida Women of Distinction Luncheon. Pageants competed this month includes included Boca Raton; Homestead/Florida Keys; Miami; North Central Florida; and Space Coast/Treasure Coast

June: With the Miss Florida USA Preliminary Season over and state just around the corner it was all about The Road to Hollywood. With a full month of pretape sessions and one very popular Seminar Day it was pageant fun for everyone! Our charity fashion show “It’s Never Too Hot For Fashion” raised funds for The Broward Outreach Center. In an alumni note our Miss Florida USA 2005 Melissa Witek made her network debut on “The Amazing Race”.

July: It was all about Miss Florida USA as The City of Hollywood, Broward Community College and our host The Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa hosted one amazing pageant! In what has to be the most competitive state pageant ever saw Jenna Edwards awarded the title. Over 5 million people worldwide viewed the pageant in 87 countries and throughout Florida. While the spotlight was on the state pageant our Miss Florida Teen USA Jennifer Wooten was finishing preparations for Miss Teen USA in Palm Springs.

August: It was a road trip out west for this years Miss Teen USA Pageant in Palm Springs. Hot, Hotter, Hottest was the words on everyone’s mouth as our Miss Florida Teen USA Jennifer Wooten survived the heat for a semi-finalist placement. The Special Summer Prelim Sessions saw titles awarded in Coconut Grove/Coral Gables; Escambia County and Orland to celebrate The Florida Sunshine.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Pirates, nutcracker soldiers and glow-stick twirling dancers made their way up a 10-mile stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway in Saturday night's winter spectacle. About 104 vessels -- from kayaks to mega-yachts -- cruised from Port Everglades to Pompano Beach in the 35th annual Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade.

Green, gold and violet fireworks spiraled and burst overhead, kicking off the 6:30 p.m. South Florida tradition. "This is the boat parade to beat all boat parades," said Ann Coffin, 67, a retired schoolteacher from Venice, Fla., who has been joining her brother, Tom Willard, 63, a retired U.S. Navy senior chief petty officer, to view the parade almost yearly since 1986.

"This is our spot, because you get the best vantage point," she said from their perch atop the northwestern flank of the 17th Street Causeway. "Ah, look at that light display," Coffin said, pointing to a boat arrayed in bright pink lights forming a bird's head at the bow and wings on port and starboard sides.

"See, I'm not sure if you'd know that was a bird with wings on both sides from down below." Coffin and Willard said the crowd seemed sparser this year, perhaps because of the weather. Rain began to fall about 30 minutes before show time. The 50 or so revelers gathered atop the causeway came prepared with rain ponchos, hats and umbrellas. By 6:30, the rain backed off into a slight but constant drizzle.

Entrants kept with this year's theme -- Broadway on the Waterway -- by ringing out show tunes from South Pacific, Cabaret, Hello Dolly and pipe organ strains from Phantom of the Opera. And in honor of Grand Marshal Frankie Valli, his signature hit Grease pumped from the Seminole's party vessel. "This is fabulous. I've never seen anything like it," said Catherine Reichling, 53, a hypnotist from Grosse Pointe, Mich., as she watched the twinkling lights reflect on the waterway.

Reichling found herself in Fort Lauderdale unexpectedly after a seven-day Caribbean cruise was cut to five days because of mechanical failures. But the boat parade turned a downer into a highlight. "I am just totally tickled," Reichling said. "What wonderful timing. I had no idea that Fort Lauderdale had anything like this."

The fireworks exploding from the Dynamic Effects barge lit up the sky as it cruised past the viewing stands at Birch State Park. As each explosion got louder, the fireworks got brighter and some children crouched low to the ground with hands over their ears. Sehee Lee, 14, stood by the fence separating the grandstand from the waterway, enraptured. "The fireworks were really great," said Lee, who was visiting from Davis, Calif. Another visitor, Kevin Banning, 35, of Washington D.C. was equally impressed. "This is fabulous," he said. "This is Fort Lauderdale's version of Disneyworld. It's magical. It's good energy."

To get The Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade into a festive spirit, our friends who run this spectacular event throw a fun evening in honor of the VIP, dignitaries and sponsors of the worlds largest boat parade. Hosted by The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (naturally) this year the honoree was Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Frankie Valli (Walk Like a Man; Cherry; Grease) who has seen recently on HBO’s “The Sopranos”

Goofing off awaiting their introductions (left) Ms. Edwards and Miss Hastey meet the evenings guests (right)

Our Miss Hastey and Ms. Edwards were introduced to the attendees then headed back to their host hotel as a long weekend awaited. In addition to our YouTube.com Movie of The Week we though you would enjoy these pictures. Check out the Seminole Winterfest Boat Parade Broadcast on WSVN-Channel 7 in South Florida this Saturday December 23^rd along with a Boston airing the same date and time on NBC-7.

Last Thursday, Jules Meyer Pageant Director of Miss Hollywood USA 2008 and her Co-Directors, Denise Manos and Deb Gronvold along with Miss Hollywood USA 2007 Rachel Rose and Miss Hollywood Teen USA 2007 Krizia Toledo presented in front of the City of Hollywood Commission Meeting. Interim Parks and Rec. Director, Jack Mathison introduced Ms. Meyer who then introduced the current titleholders.

The presentation was held in order to thank the City of Hollywood, the Mayor and Commissioners as well as the Pageant's two largest sponsors, the Hollywood Beach CRA and the Hollywood Beach Marriott.

The highlight of the presentation was definitely when Ms. Meyer, Ms. Rose and Miss Toledo deemed Mayor Mara Giulianti, Vice Mayor Fran Russo and Commissioner Cathleen Anderson, Honorary Miss Hollywood USAs...complete with their own crowns! The newest "titleholders" enjoyed the presentation so much that the Mayor and Vice Mayor did not take off their crowns for the rest of the commission meeting!

In addition, Rachel and Krizia talked about how much they have enjoyed the past year with more than 40+ appearances throughout the city of Hollywood and how this year's 2008 pageant on Sunday, January 21, 2007 will be one they won't want to miss!

Our West Broward USA Team were invited to the "Best Buddies" Gala on Watson Island in Miami to join Miss Teen USA Katie Blair as official reprentatives of The Miss USA Family. Chelsea Korka, Miss West Broward USA 2007 and Adriana Pedrique Miss West Broward Teen USA 2007 had a great time and meet lots of celebrities, sponsors and Best Buddies.

After a long evening it was up bright and early as a West Broward USA tradition of shopping with the less fortunate in Coral Springs every holiday season. The ladies along with pageant director Barbara Ewald shopped at 7 am Sunday morning after getting home the prior night at 1:30 from the gala! The girls shopped with some well deserving children at Kmart. Way to go Adriana, Barbara and Chelsea.

Miss Universe runner-up Kurara Chibana (front center with white shirt) poses with the 16 finalists for the 2007 Miss Universe Japan contest at a kick-off party in Shibuya on Monday night. Miss Universe Japan will be chosen next March 15.

» PICTURES & STORIES WANTED!

If you enjoy reading the stories of our Miss Florida USA Family and want us to know what great things are happening either during or after you reign please email us at telair@aol.com. We love touting our sorority of outstanding Florida women. Please send us a paragraph (or two) on your appearances, awards or community service and include pictures. We want you to have all of the support of this great lifestyle we call Miss Florida USA!

» 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!

We know it’s the holiday season but our Picture of The Week Committee has seen the movie “Grease” well over 250 times collectively (and it isn’t that big of group!). So when we see Team Florida USA with Frankie Valli then we had to say “Grease is the word”…have you heard? Congratulations as this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee gathers a new recognition as winner of this weeks Picture of The Week.