Miss Florida USA Faces

We now have pageant holiday traditions in Florida. If it’s Easter it must be Marshmallow Palooza time in Hollywood as we bring in helicopters to drop tons of marshmallows to the children in pursuit of 30 colored and special prize winning pieces of candy. Then it’s up to our hard working delegates to present the lucky children with prizes that included video games and two really cool bicycles.

Twelve of our Class of 2009 delegates journeyed to Wildcat Field in East Hollywood early this past Saturday morning. Amongst the local dignitaries included City Commissioners Beam Furr and Fran Russo along with our new Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober. After several photo opportunities it was all about the Easter Bunny as the children and delegates had a wonderful morning. We all said goodbye before noon ready for this Sunday’s holiday!

Ms. Gallego reinforces the theme of the day, “Don’t Eat the Marshmallows” (left) &

Jenna Canfield, Miss Sarasota Teen USA 2009 reported on The Easter Egg Hunt.

New Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober has his first official Miss Florida USA Photo Opportunity

Team Sunset Place USA 2009 (left) & Commissioners Beam Furr and Fran Russo

Pageantry in Volusia County was kicked up a notch as this past Saturday saw a pageant doubleheader at The Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center. It all started with twilight “Going Away to Miss USA” Party courtesy of Pageant Director Kim Decker in honor of the former Miss Volusia County USA Jessica Rafalowski who is now representing Florida at Miss USA this April. With a who’s who of pageantry and politics in the atrium it was declared “Jessica Rafalowski, Miss Florida USA Day” by the Ormond Beach Mayor.

After the obligatory photo opportunities it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Ms. Rafalowski as her twenty second birthday was also celebrated. Then it was back to business as onstage it was time to compete for The Miss Ormond Beach USA title. The hall was packed as we crowned the newest member of The Class of 2009 at Miss Florida USA. This week The Road to Hollywood takes us to points east and west as we have pageants in West Palm Beach, Pensacola, Jacksonville and Lakeland. Unfortunately we can only attend one and next week we will feature The Miss Gold Coast USA & Teen USA Pageants.

Get out and enjoy a pageant as Miss Florida USA is going statewide on Super Saturday. Pictures from all four sites right here next week!

Saturday March 15^th was Jessica Rafalowski, Miss Florida USA Day in Volusia County (left)

If it’s March it must be time for the sixth annual “Going Away to Miss USA Soiree” at The Hollywood Production Center. The soundstages were abuzz with pageant chatter, friendships and fun as it was all in honor of our Ms. Rafalowski. An outstanding turnout by our South Florida USA Pageant Family showed their support as it’s only a week before the start of Miss USA!

With catering by Try My Thai and beverages courtesy of www.Pageatdiva.com it was a lovely evening. Highlights included Ms. Rafalowski welcome speech as well as photographs and autograph signings. We also had a long distance special guest as Miss Massachusetts Teen USA joined us for the evening. Don’t forget that our special Miss USA reports start next week right here at www.MissFloridaUSA.com beginning March 26^th.

Team Hollywood USA was in the house (left) Robin from LaCasa Hermosa presented

Junior Miss Miami Tropics Teen Kristen Sabina wishes Ms. Rafalowski well at Miss USA on camera (left)

Get your autographs before she hits it big! (center) Ms. Rafalowski thanked all who attended (right)

Karlee Janigan, Miss Boca Raton Teen USA 2008, Kelly Saks, Miss Hollywood USA 2009,

The soundstage was packed with pageant friends (left) Miss West Broward USA 2009 Andrea Sullivan,

- Kudos to Vida Sheffield (Miss Capital City USA), Victoria Woods (Miss Tallahassee Teen USA), Heather Elwell (Miss Tallahassee USA) and Mattie Barwick (Miss Capital City Teen USA) as they graced the “Open House Thursday” night event at The Florida Museum of History in Downtown Tallahassee. It was a fun night of networking and enjoying the Museum as we added life to the party! Also don’t forget if you are in or around Tallahassee this weekend the Capital City USA Pageant in on WTLH Fox 49 Sunday at 5:00pm! Great job getting involved ladies!

- Kudos to Team West Broward USA members Andrea Sullivan, Miss West Broward USA and Dara von Hollander, Miss West Broward Teen USA as they were special celebrity models at The “Magic of Caring” Fashion Show fundraiser for the South Florida unit of The Arthritis Foundation. Our ladies looked smashing amongst the diginitaries that hit the catwalk for a great cause. Way to do a good thing Andrea and Dara!

The Envy Pageant Team of Fort Myers and Sarasota was busy on the Fox 4 Morning Show. An early wake up call at 4am and on the set at 5:15am was easy for Miss Fort Myers USA-Maria DeMoya, Miss Fort Myers Teen USA-Kendra Altemeyer, Miss Sarasota Teen USA-Jenna Canfield and Miss Florida Teen USA-Jillian Wunderlich.

Fox 4 was a promoter of the upcoming Miss Cape Coral USA pageant and had the girls on for 3 hours in between news segments. The host, "Wild Bill" was awed by the lively, talented (Miss Sarasota Teen USA sings) and beautiful girls, who made the early morning show look easy!

The Queens answered questions, demonstrated the pageant walk and spoke about their titles and upcoming events including the Miss Cape Coral USA pageant and contestant luncheon. The Queens also got to promote the Hot Flash dance group as well as ride Spyders-a new type of motorcycle. What a day!

Miss Sarasota Teen USA-Jenna Canfield and Miss Florida Teen Jillian Wunderlich take

Going online Saturday night will be the best of shots from The Miss Ormond Beach USA Pageant to be held at The Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center. 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!

We go back to last weekends Marshmallow Palloza in Hollywood where we find our favorite holiday icon, The Easter Bunny, with our tireless titleholders. We love the holidays here at POTW and after a spirited Easter egg hunt we convened to select this great picture. So Happy Easter from your friends at Picture of The Week!