Miss Florida USA Faces

It was a fun afternoon of pageantry as The Road to Hollywood returned to Tampa for one of the original six preliminary titles. The Tampa Bay Convention Center was the perfect location on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Hats off to Brigetta Long and her West Florida Production Team for presenting a well run first pageant. It was also great to see former Miss Florida Teen USA and Miss Tampa USA 2008 Victoria Ratliff and Miss Orange County Summer Leigh who were excellent hostesses for the day.

Up next is this Sunday’s Miss Hollywood USA and Teen USA 2009 Pageants at The Hollywood Beach Marriott. We look forward to seeing our South Florida USA Pageant family as our host town selects this year’s representative. The Hollywood Jaycees always put on a great pageant as this event usually sells out. So purchase your tickets online at www.misshollywoodusa.com and see everyone on Sunday.

With pageantry glasnost as a theme our Sunset Place USA and Miami Tropics Teams visited The Miss University of Miami event this past Thursday night to show love. Miss Kendall USA Kourtney Gallego; Miss Pinecrest USA Natalia Lopez; Miss Pinecrest Teen USA Philipia Valencia; Miss Miami Tropics Teen ---- and Miss Miami Teen USA 2007 Alexandra Montesano joined yours truly for a fun evening of bonding.

It was also great to see Miss Florida Kylie Williams perform as we have watched her grow onstage from her preliminary pageant days in the Panhandle USA qualifiers. Of course we brought our camera and have some fun pictures of the evening.

A Class of 2007 Reunion – Ms. Lopez and Ms. Montesano catch up after the pageant (left) &

Headliners donated their time and talent to help draw a record crowd to the 9th Annual River Fest on Saturday. While final reconciliation is still a while away River Fest Chairperson Leslie Pearce feels it will also be a record for funds raised for our River Fest Charities.

Miss Florida 2008 Jessica Rafalowski signed autographs for nearly two hours and made herself available for an hour long photo session provided courtesy of Prosperity Place Kimberly Cline. As the first ever River Fest Ambassador Jessica kicked off the opening Ceremonies by assisting Rotary Club President Vince Agusta in welcoming the visiting dignitaries. Among the dignitaries participating in the opening Ceremonies was Rotary District Governor Cecil Gibson, DeBary City Mayor George Coleman and County Commissioner Pat Northey. Jessica who is a senior at Stetson University will be competing for the Miss USA Crown next month on April 11th in Las Vegas.

Also donating her time was IPI Recording Artist Shari Farmer. Shari provided an hour long concert singing many of her originals from her Up Close & Personal Album along with popular cover songs to the pleasure of the crowd. Shari will be flying out next week to Los Angeles to perform at the Boys and Girls Club National Convention.

“With the schedule both Jessica and Shari have it is a testament to their sense of community that they both took time to participate in our event” said Rotary Club President Vince Agusta.

Families had an opportunity to enjoy a variety of entertainment including Fiddle, Folk and Blue Grass music performances throughout the day on the Music Stage. Plus there was a variety of dance including theatrical, hip hop, cultural, modern, clogging, belly and square dancing on the Community Stage during the day.

River Fest is an annual festival held by the Rotary Club of Four Townes Orange City supported by almost 200 volunteers from various organizations that help in organizing, planning and delivering the event each year. The festival was created to provide affordable family fun, benefit local organizations, and celebrate Florida's natural environment. River Fest is held at beautiful Gemini Springs Park in DeBary. It provides fun for the whole family, with musicians and local performers, crafters and vendors, educational exhibits, and rides and games for children.

From Left to Right Rotary District Governor Cecil Gibson, Rotary Club President Vince Agusta,

Miss Florida 2008 Jessica Rafalowski, DeBary City Mayor George Coleman (Brother of Pageant

Director Mary Lou Gravitt), County Commissioner Pat Northey OPENING CEREMONIES

- As always it was a busy time for The PageantReady Team who this weekend stayed up all night to raise funds for The America Cancer Society at the annual Relay for Life marathon. Miss South Miami USA Rachel Rose; Miss North Miami 2008 Christina Rumsfelt; Miss Hialeah USA Stefanie Jimenez and Miss Boca Raton Teen USA 2008 Karlee Janigan joined Jules Myer for the traditional event in Pembroke Pines. CB Smith Park never looked better as our titleholders spiced up the event. Way to do great things for a fantastic cause ladies!

- Kudos to Miss Capital City USA Vida Sheffield who assisted The Tallahassee Children’s Home Society Chef's Sampler in a fundraiser that makes it possible for them to help over 4,700 children and their families each year. Ms. Sheffield also meet Mr. Jackie Pons Superintendent of Leon County Schools and a number of great supporters. Ms. Sheffield said “the best experience of the evening was having the opportunity to help the children and families in the Tallahassee community.” Way to get involved Vida!

Another busy week awaited The Envy Pageant Team who were invited to the Boys & Girls Club Auction event with the BOSTON RED SOCKS Base Ball Team. Miss Sarasota Teen USA-Jenna Canfield, Miss Fort Myers Teen USA-Kendra Altemeyer and Miss Fort Myers USA-Maria DeMoya meet and mingled with VIP's from the baseball world while making good contacts and great memories. Take us out to the ball game ladies!

The Envy Pageant Productions team-Sarasota went on the road to Sarasota for the annual ABC-TV Health Fair. Miss Sarasota USA-Donna Snow and her sister Queen Miss Sarasota Teen USA-Jenna Canfield were special VIP guests, as they meet and mingled with some of the area's top Health Care professionals.

Envy Pageant Productions-Cape Coral sent their Queens to the Celebrate Cape Parade at the end of a very busy week of appearances. This nighttime parade was one of the largest in Southwest Florida and thousands of people jammed the streets while the visiting Queens waved and braved the chilly temperatures. Locals were very excited about the upcoming Miss Cape Coral USA pageant.

Going online Sunday night will be the best of shots from The Miss Hollywood USA Pageant to be held on Hollywood Beach. 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!

» 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 loves the mushy stuff. Were talking puppy dogs, cute kids, the whole nine yards! So when we reviewed this picture from Saturday’s Pageant of celebration from a very proud mother we just had to award it the Picture of The Week. Enjoy!