Miss Florida USA Faces

Ms. Hall and Miss Pate (left) Miss Brooks tries on a gown! (center) Ms. Daniels gave some great swimsuit tips! (right)

Ms. Powell and Ms. Elwell (left) & Ms. Sheffield and Ms. Conley renew their pageant friendship!

Miss Tallahassee USA 2008 Jamie Lynn Daniels, Miss Tallahassee Teen USA 2008 Kelly Haffner and Miss Capital City Teen USA Brittany Pate added star power to a fun afternoon. A special appearance by Miss River City USA 2009 Laurie Conley made the day complete as the seven potential delegates left the afternoon knowing pageantry the Miss Florida USA way. In a few weeks we return back to The R.A. Gray for the televised final pageant on February 23^rd!

MISS SUNSET PLACE USA

The final edition of The www.PageantDiva.com Miss Sunset Place USA Seminar Day Series took place at The Make Up Store as twenty potential delegates and a few traveling titleholders joined us for a fun Sunday. With State Pageant Director Mary Lou Gravitt as the featured speaker the focus on the afternoon was fashion and evening gowns. And our delegates had a lot of questions and the pageant was a mere week away.

Group Shot!

Miss Agulier and Miss Altuve flank our friends from the Miss Latina Pageant

Then it was outside to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and practice the patterns on the stages of Sunset Place’s Performance Pavilion. This is one unique venue as the Florida Palms add to the beauty of our delegates. After the afternoon wrapped it is now all about Saturday’s finals featuring thirteen USA delegates and eight Teen delegates.

Ms. Sax practices with Miss Pedraja onstage (left) Ms. Gallego with a very proud and supportive father (right)

Miss South Miami USA 2008 Kelly Sax had the delegates on the edges of their seats as she tells of

her year of pageantry (left) Ms. Francisco and Ms. Wills share a photo opportunity (right)

The venue is free and open to the public so we invite all of our pageant friends to join us this Saturday as we are proud to announce that Miss Florida Teen USA 2007 and the former Miss Sunset Place Teen USA Annilie Hastey will be the presenting hostess sharing the microphone with our Team Sunset Place USA 2008. See everyone and remember that it’s a 6:00pm start.

Julie Donaldson Ready to knock our Sox off - Ch. 7 makes new sports hire After poring over hundreds of tapes and an exhaustive nearly year-long search, WHDH-TV (Ch.7) debuts its stunning new sports reporter next week - former Miss Florida USA Julie Donaldson. Donaldson plans to cover the Red Sox and hits the Boston airwaves next Thursday from Fort Myers, Fla., when the team’s pitchers and catchers report for spring training.

A lifelong sports fan, Donaldson comes from SportsNet New York, a regional sports network in the Big Apple - a bigger TV market where she covered the Knicks and (I hate to say this) the Giants this past season. Before that, she was the host of the Miami Heat’s “Heat TV” and also worked for FOX Sports Net Florida.

Donaldson is out of the country and wasn’t available to talk with MediaBiz, but Channel 7 Sports Director Joe Amorosino tells me she’s going to make an immediate impact in the Boston market. “She’s the kind of person, when you meet her, you instantly like her,” Amorosino said. “She’s very entertaining yet she carries herself with class and dignity, both in person and on television. If you’re flipping around on the stations,” he said, “you will stop and watch her, because there’s something about her that draws you in.”

Donaldson’s supermodel looks may also keep some from reaching for the clicker. At age 22 after graduating from the University of Florida, she was crowned Miss Florida USA 2001, having been first runner-up the year before. Donaldson then competed in the Miss USA pageant but didn’t place. I’m guessing she didn’t send the station the VHS tape she created on the secrets of looking “like a pro” in a swimsuit.

While Channel 7 likes them young, Donaldson turns 30 next week. And for all you male readers who are wondering, she’s not married. Beauty pageants aside, Amorosino was most impressed with Donaldson’s live reporting. “She’s really sharp. She’s very much polished in terms of her reporting,” he said.

Donaldson is the first woman on Channel 7’s sports staff since Wendi Nix, who bolted for national sports television network ESPN in the summer of 2006. Channel 7 management and ownership had wanted a woman since Nix’s departure. Donaldson officially replaces Dave Briggs, whose contract wasn’t renewed. His last day is tomorrow.

Amorosino said having a woman on his sports team is important. “It’s a sampling of your audience. Anyone who says women don’t watch sports is so wrong,” he said. “We have the numbers to back it up. Women watch. Women are Red Sox fans. They know as much about the Red Sox and some of these other teams as men do.”

This past Saturday our Miss Florida USA 2004 Kristen Beset flew to the Middle East for a sort of fishing détente. As the co-host of the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series show on The Florida Sun Sports Network her and her co-host, Joe Mercurio have been asked to help boost the morale of our soldiers fighting over seas. The Armed Forces Entertainment is sponsoring our trip.

The focus of the trip is to host a fishing derby called Operation: Catch Fish, the first-ever official fishing tournament for members of the U.S. Armed Forces deployed overseas. They will be staying at Camp Victory in Baghdad. They flew this past Saturday to Kuwait and stay a few days on the bases meeting with the soldiers and then they head to Baghdad!

“I am super excited ( and a bit nervous) about the opportunity to boost the morale and bring some excitement to our soldiers!” Says our Ms. Berset “Over 250 soldiers from several different military branches are expected to participate”. According to Captain Trevor Garrett, who is the Southwest Asia Circuit Manager for Armed Forces Entertainment – the government organization that coordinates all forms of recreational activities for American soldiers serving out of the country, fishing is a popular form of recreation for troops stationed near the lakes and ponds scattered throughout the Middle East. She promises to share pictures with you all she gets back! She also says she “Misses my Miss Florida Family!”

Ms. Rafalowski hits the catwalk (left) and enjoys a gift of matching earrings!

Thank you for the crown cleaning to add that sparkle for the weekend (right)

Going online Saturday night will be the best of shots from the eight title pageant Miss Sunset Place USA & Teen to be held in South Miami. 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.

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!

Our Picture of The Week Committee caught a very interesting entry this week as we see Miss Universe Riyo Mori (L) tweaks the moustache of an actor playing Mr. Monopoly at an event to kick off world-wide online voting to select which cities will be featured on the game board of the new Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition, in New York. FYI, Mori supported a vote for Tokyo, Japan. This weeks edition takes you to Park Place but don’t pass go and don’t collect $200!

Team Tallahassee USA with a Miss River City USA

MISS TALLAHASSEE USA

Ms. Powell and Ms. Elwell (left) & Ms. Sheffield and Ms. Conley renew their pageant friendship!

MISS SUNSET PLACE USA

Group Shot!

Miss Agulier and Miss Altuve flank our friends from the Miss Latina Pageant

Ms. Sax practices with Miss Pedraja onstage (left) Ms. Gallego with a very proud and supportive father (right)

Miss South Miami USA 2008 Kelly Sax had the delegates on the edges of their seats as she tells of

her year of pageantry (left) Ms. Francisco and Ms. Wills share a photo opportunity (right)