Miss Florida USA Faces

High on the bow of the majestic, 130-foot Grand Floridian, Lorraine Bracco let loose with a fitting greeting from an actress who portrayed a TV mob psychiatrist on “The Soprano’s”: "Hello jailhouse! Hello inmates!"

For the first time in its 36-year history, Fort Lauderdale's signature holiday event, the Winterfest Boat Parade, made stately passage Saturday night down the New River. Vessels adorned in all manner of holiday whimsy, both traditional and playful, cast glittering reflections in the dark water.

Some 80 boats glided past the county lockup, past the Auto Nation Building whose roof spewed fireworks, and past thousands of hooting, cheering, waving spectators. "The nice thing about this is we're close," said Marc Sternberg, 56, of Fort Lauderdale. "You can see the boats really close, all the music, the lights, everything."

Amid the blustery evening, echoes of music bounced off downtown buildings and children gaped awestruck on the riverbank. The boats dazzled, not only in their decorations, but also in the sophistication of their design.

They sported snowflakes, red bows and bells, green garlands, American flags, dolphins, snowmen and even a rainbow. An inflatable Homer Simpson Santa Claus bobbed atop one boat's bridge. A sailboat's mast and rigging was transformed into a Christmas tree. One vessel displayed an oversized menorah and dreidel. Another became Noah's Ark, full of artfully crafted cutout animals.

Several large mega-yachts took imaginative — and expensive — pains to reflect the parade's theme of Magical Movie Moments. There were Wizard of Oz characters outlined in lights. King Kong raged on one bow. The Blues Brothers appeared in lights and on a wide-screen TV on the side of another massive yacht.

Miss Wunderlich’s boat (The Perrier) heads to the staging area on the New River before the start

People lined the Riverwalk in one long, undulating party. Some arrived hours early with lawn chairs, blankets and coolers. Stands provided food and drink. "No problems," was the assessment of Tyrone Baynham, a city park ranger. "Everybody's behaving and doing what they're supposed to do."

David Storey stopped his bicycle rickshaw to grab a quick hot dog. "It's a real festival," he said. "Children are showing more emotion than anybody else — happiness."

While our titleholders were on the waterways we were in South Miami at Sunset Place for the first of three Pageant Seminar Day’s that were hosted by The Make Up Store. It was a fun day of pageantry as eight potential delegates and Team Miami Tropics were on hand. The day was absolutely perfect as the party moved from indoors to out doors to take advantage of the tropical surroundings.

Up next is a January 6^th seminar day featuring Acting Coach extraordinaire Marc Durso as well as other special guests. Check out more photos at our www.virb.com/missfloridausa site on Virb!

Ms. Parekh onstage under the palms (left) Iram from The Make Up Store and good sport Ms. Fernandez (center)

- Kudos to The Miss Fort Myers USA Team and Miss Treasure Coast Teen USA-Kendra Altemeyer and Miss Stuart Teen USA-Riley Nowell as they were part of the live radio broadcast on B-103.9 radio in Ft. Myers. The girls loved playing the part of live radio d-jays and were naturals on the microphone. Way to be Queens of The Airwaves Kendra and Riley!

- Kudos to Miss Avalon Park USA 2008 Miranda Weber who gathered enough toys for FIVE organizations in need! Ms. Webber single handedly lead a toy fund drive for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Volusia County. Ms. Weber started collecting toys in early November for “Littles” in need of some extra holiday cheer. The generosity from family, friends, fellow Queens and Directors was overwhelming as enough toys and gifts, including two brand new bicycles, were donated to help not only Big Brothers/Big Sisters, but four other needy organizations as well including a local children’s hospital and a local elementary school. Way to make so many have a better holiday Miranda!

It’s always fun to take a look back on the year that was! And 2007 brought us some memorable pictures and people, not to mention some great pageantry. So put on those flashback glasses and let’s start with this past January.

In April all eyes were on Los Angeles as Miss USA took center stage. Miss Florida USA Jenna Edwards represented our state and had a great support group following her. It was also time for Marshmallow Palloza in Hollywood as our delegate met the Easter Bunny. Also all eyes were on our Miss West Broward USA Chelse Korka as she was in the running to be the Next Pussycat Doll! We finished April with our annual charity fashion show for The Broward Outreach Center and raised over $50,000.00 for our local homeless assistance initiative.

May saw our pageant family at Ft. Lauderdale’s AIDS Day Walk and Hollywood’s Expo Alfresco. These were amongst the highlights of springtime in Florida pageantry. The Road To Highway ventured from Key West to Panama City Beach while preparations for Miss Florida USA were in full swing!

The official kickoff of Summer saw Pretape weekend and Miss Florida USA Seminar Day as The Road to Hollywood was close to completion. June also saw Japan win our world championship of pageantry Miss Universe.

We have found a great host for all of our pictures before they are formally posted here on our home page starting on Monday. Visit http://virb.com/missfloridausa for pictures from Jillian’s parade appearance this past weekend in South Miami. Always trying to stay ahead of the communications curve here at Miss Florida USA.

We have found a great host for all of our pictures before they are formally posted here on our home page. Visit http://virb.com/missfloridausa as we have posted over 150 photos from this past pre-tape weekend. We will also post all timely pictures there after preliminary pageants and special appearances. Always trying to stay ahead of the communications cure here at Miss Florida USA!

» 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!

This weeks POTW went all the way around the world to Russia as they bring in the snow element to their national crowning. Ksenia Sukhinova is all smiles in this winter wonderland as she was named as the winner of 'Miss Russia' beauty contest in Moscow. Amongst the faux snow is a holiday Picture of The Week!