Miss Florida USA Faces

Talk about a beauty and a beast —Kayla Collier, 17, has gone from smiling pretty at the Miss Florida Teen USA pageant to raising a 1,000-pound steer for the South Florida Fair.

Collier, of Pahokee, is one of 300 Palm Beach County students taking on a 4-H Club project during the 16-day fair. While some students chose a poster board presentation or a science experiment, Collier chose to raise and enter Brodie, a hefty red and white Braford steer with a need for attention, in the fair's youth livestock competition.

Since August, she has fed, groomed, walked and tended to Brodie daily, hoping to win a prize and raise money for college. All along she knew her chances could be over in a moment, if Brodie didn't make weight.

We went from pageants to steers," said her mom, Claire Collier. "I couldn't believe she was doing this."

For six months, Kayla Collier repeated her caretaker duties every day in hopes of producing a winner. She fed Brodie before and after school, having to watch him eat or else he'd get mad. Kayla gave him baths and groomed him for hours to make sure his coat gleamed.

She also spent time teaching him how to walk properly. Brodie didn't always cooperate.

"It was a lot harder than I thought, but it was a new experience I wanted to have," she said. "I will be sad when it's over."

Even though it was cold and rainy outside, the heat was on in Gainesville as the first of two stops in Gator County saw the twin titles of Miss Alachua County and Miss Marion County.

Ms. Rhodes was a youtube reporter for a day! (left) Our Miss USA Titleholders (right)

Kudos to Kendra Altemeyer, 2009 Miss Fort Myers Teen recently tried out her MC duties as she and pageant sister-Maria DeMoya were the guests of honors at the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce fashion show. Several contestants of the Miss Fort Myers USA pageant modeled fashions from Ricochet swimwear while Kendra and Maria shared microphone duty. Kendra and Maria were also the guests of honor at the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce luncheon held in their honor, with the mayor in attendance, and later that same day did ribbon cutting duty at the Best Western Hotel. Way to get involved in your communities Kendra and Maria!

In our ongoing attempt to be everywhere on the internet we now have an active Face Book Site. We love the interaction and ability to contact our friends and keep them up to date with the latest in pageant news and pictures. Surf to www.FaceBook.com/MissFloridaUSA and say hello!

Going online Saturday night will be the best of shots from the four title pageant Miss Alachua/Marion County USA & Teen to be held Saturday afternoon in Gainesville. Then look for Miss Sunset Place Seminar Day pix Sunday night as we travel to Las Vegas for the National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE) that night.

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! 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!

Here at our weekly POTW Committee Meetings we had quite the short week. We love the tradition that is Miss America so a natural selection would be this shot of Kirsten Haglund celebrates after being crowned Miss America 2008 during the Miss America Pageant at the Planet Hollywood hotel and casino in Las Vegas a place we will be in a few months. So congratulations Kirsten on another title, Picture of The Week!