Miss Florida USA Faces

What a hectic week it’s been here at Miss Florida USA. Saturday we started with the first ever Miss Miami Gardens USA. Visiting Monsignor Pace for the first time since high school it was great to see another new region to call Miss USA Country. The venue was perfect with a beautiful set and energy for the evening.

Then on Sunday we headed north on I-95 for the first ever pageant in the northern Palm Beach County town of Jupiter. The Atlantic Theater was the perfect host as the audience was a nice mixture of attendees and traveling titleholders as bling was the order of the day. After a great pageant it was a fast trip to the airport as we were Las Vegas bound.

That leads us to our third report of the week. A fun fashion show entitled Fashion Rocks The Universe fundraiser at The Hawaiian Tropic Zone just adjacent to Planet Hollywood. Several past titleholders joined the 42 Miss Teen USA attendees for a fashion show high above the restaurant. We had some of our Miss Florida USA Family in attendance as they joined us outdoor for a beautiful view of the world famous “strip”. Our Miss Florida Teen USA Jillian Wunderlich was a featured titleholder and had a blast. We have the pictures from one fun week, let’s check them out!

Hollywood and Hialeah are in The House as Stephanie Jimenez, Kelly Saks and Tiana Guillermo (left)

Miss Florida USA Alumni Brooke Francis shows the cameras her beautiful baby boy! (right)

On Saturday a new campaign for the city of Cape Coral called Positivity Rules Across America will kick off at the Chamber of Commerce at 10 a.m. Cape Coral mayor Eric Feichthaler is expected to read a proclamation to officially recognize the month of April as “Positivity Rules Awareness Month for the city of Cape Coral. Actor Misha Mck will spearhead the campaign, according to organizers.

Kicking off the morning’s event and activities, will be a ribbon cutting by the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce for Positivity Rules Across America campaign. Joining also, will be the young queens who won Miss Teen USA and Miss USA beauty Pageants for Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Sarasota.

Positivity Rules Across America is a non-profit organization, and its campaign seeks to develop self-esteem and public well being across the United States. There will be live music and food at the event. For more information: call Sarah Goldstein (239) 961-5321

Agusta Urica, 31, was crowned the world's first Miss Landmine Wednesday in Luanda, Angola, beating out 17 other women who've lost limbs to landmines in this African nation still struggling with the vestiges of a 20-year civil war.

Urica, a survivor of a landmine that claimed a portion of her leg, was being fitted Thursday for a new prosthetic limb after cinching the win before dignitaries and the nation's first lady, Ana Paula dos Santos.

"Now she is a famous person here," organizer Morten Traavik said of Urica. "She will be the face and the ambassador of this group of people, for disabled people in general and landmine-disabled people in particular."

Urica, who is unemployed and represents the capital, Luanda, also won $1,000, a motorbike, clothes, a weekend in a luxury hotel and a variety of domestic appliances.

Traavik, a Norwegian theater director, devised the pageant to raise awareness of the plight of landmine survivors. Though Angola's civil war ended six years ago, as many as 8 million landmines remain buried throughout the country and an estimated 80,000 amputees live there.

"There are no sensationalistic intentions within Miss Landmine," Traavik told FOXNews.com last November. "Of course, the format has been chosen because it's obviously a very media-friendly forum, but it still is based very, very much on local culture, since beauty pageants are such a consistent phenomenon in Angolan contemporary culture."

Women representing each of the nation's 18 provinces competed Wednesday in this nationally televised event. Using crutches and artificial limbs, they strutted the catwalk twice — once in traditional robes of their province and once in gala evening gowns. But unlike most beauty pageants, there were no swimsuits. "We don’t do bikinis in front of the president’s wife," Traavik said Thursday. "Not in Angola."

Preparations for this year's contest began in 2006, when 10 of the contestants were flown to the Angolan capital to participate in a photo shoot. For their work, the women were paid $200 a day and given the clothing and jewelry they wore for the pictures.

The photos were placed online where Internet voters could choose their own favorite Miss Landmine. Nearly 10,000 people from 30 countries voted and Miss Cuanza Sul, Maria Restino Manuel, 26, was crowned the Internet winner with 29 percent of the vote, Traavik said. Like Urica, she also won a custom-made prosthetic limb.

"They were very, very happy to take part," Traavik said. "Of course, there were some that were disappointed for not winning, but then again that's the nature of a pageant." The next Miss Landmine pageant will take place in Cambodia in 2009.

Miss Malanje, Filomena Domingos da Costa; Miss Uíge, Anita Pedro; and Miss Cuanza Sul,

Kudos to Team Lakeland USA members Alexandra Watkins and Christie Nowels as they volunteered at a Children's Festival in Downtown Lakeland last weekend. They spent 4 hours handing out crowns that were donated by the Disney Channel.. They also took lots of pictures with future pageant girls. Way to spread fun and joy in Polk County Alexandra and Christie!

Going online Friday night will be the best of shots from The Miss USA Pageant and post pageant gala. Also look for pictures from Sunday’s Miss Pompano Beach USA & Teen USA Pageant. 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!

WILL BE BACK NEXT WEEK!