Miss Minnesota Workshop/ Outstanding Teen

This past Saturday we had our contestant workshop. This is a day where we get meet all of the local titleholders, find out roommate pairings, contestant order and attend Miss Minnesota Outstanding Teen. To make roommate pairings and contestant order fair, they draw our names from a bowl. I am so happy with the way that everything turned out! I will be spending my week of Miss Minnesota with Niila Witikko, Miss Minneapolis. I am so excited to get to know her better, as we already have many similarities! I chose to be contestant number 3, meaning that I will take part in the lifestyle and fitness and evening gown competitions on Thursday night of prelims and talent and on-stage question on Friday night. Saturday was also a sad day, as we said our goodbyes to our amazing board of directors. They will truly be missed and always in our hearts, but they reassured us that they will all be in the audience watching. With those goodbyes came hellos as we welcomed our new co-executive directors, Bruce Vassar and Dorthy Benham. I am so excited to see what they have in store for us!

Megan Bakken and I at contestant workshop

Bethany Beniek and I at contestant workshop

In the evening all of the local titleholders attended the Teen pageant. It was such an amazing group of girls, and all of them did so well! I am honored to announce that our new Teen is Bailey Wacholz. Bailey was Miss Brainerd Lakes Outstanding Teen and has been working so hard for this title since she was 13! All of her hard work finally paid off, as she did an amazing job in all areas of the competition. It was also a pleasure to watch my own teen, Maren, compete. She is so full of energy when she is on that stage!

All of the local titleholders with the new Miss Minnesota Outstanding Teen, Bailey Wacholz

Bailey and I after the pageant

Maren, Miss North Metro Outstanding Teen, and I

Polar Plunge

I want to start by apologizing for how late this blog update is, March was a very busy month!
On March 3, myself and five other lovely title holders took the plunge into the freezing water of Lake Calhoun to raise money for Minnesota Special Olympics. This is an event that I had done last year in Brainerd, and although we were blessed with a mild winter, that day was not mild. The wind was blowing so hard as we waited in line in our bathing suits. After the initial shock of the water, we ran to the hot tubs and soaked up the warmth until we needed to leave to prep ourselves for the sweeps pageant.

The Fit4Queens Plunge group (L-R): Michelle Stahlecker, Elizabeth Scipioni, Mary Petersen, Samantha Phillippi, Caitlyn Thompson, Kiah Bennett

Bethany Beniek, the new Miss West Metro

The sweeps pageant was wonderful and the final two girls of the Miss Minnesota class of 2012 were crowned. Brittany Tischmak is now our current Miss Capital City and Bethany Beniek is our new Miss West Metro! I have the pleasure of knowing both of these beautiful young ladies, as I had competed with them in previous pageants. I am so excited to spend Miss Minn week with them, along with the other nineteen girls!