Miss Missouri 2010 Wrap-up

Miss Missouri 2010 did not disappoint in being just as memorable as last year. I had a WONDERFUL roommate, Jeni Dixon, whom I shared many hilarious moments with. Hope I can have her as my roommate again if I return to Miss MO in 2011! Love her!!

Competition was tight with So Many talented, poised, and intelligent young women competing for the honor and amazing adventure of being crowned MISS MISSOURI 2010.

I was honored to receive the Miss America Scholar Award for the 2nd year in a row! Woohoo! Jeni was awarded Non-finalist with the Most Points Overall. My lifelong friend, Sydney, made the TOP FIVE for the first time! She finished as 3rd runner-up and ROCKED IT!! :) And the BIG winner is....Erika Hebron! We were all SO happy for her. She danced so beautifully and is such a sweet and genuine person.

Well I hope this is not the end of the road for me. I had a GREAT experience and can't wait to come back to Mexico!

Miss Missouri week part 1...

It is finally here: Miss Missouri week. And tomorrow is Day 1 of  prelims. We have worked really hard on the production for the last 3 days and it is going to be a GREAT show! I am having so much fun getting to know all of the other girls. I have an awesome roommate, Jeni Dixon Miss Branson. She is so sweet and we get along splendidly. :)

Interview is tomorrow morning and I am really excited to let the judges get to know me. I want to express how passionate I am about the arts and its value and genuine I am in my love for this program and its ideals. But - my overall goal is to go in confidently and 100% myself. If I do those 2 things, I will have done what I came here to do. Well, it is late and I must get a good night's sleep. So, nighty night. I promise to have some pictures later.

God bless,
Lauren Alumbaugh

Photo Shoots --- "Say Cheese!"

A few weeks ago, the Kansas City girls had the opportunity to be led around various Kansas City locations for an afternoon photo shoot. We had a blast walking through busy intersections and a crowded park in our evening gowns. We became a tourist attraction outside the Cheesecake Factory where many visitors asked for pictures with us, many of which were taken with cell phones.

John wanted to practice his photography skills, so a few days ago, we spent a couple hours taking pictures at various Joplin locations. It was a lot of fun! Below are a couple of his shots. And they turned out pretty impressive for an amateur. :) (more photos to come.)

CMN Golf Tournament...almost!

I was invited to help Children's Miracle Network with their annual Golf Tournament in Miami, Oklahoma. We had just taken our place at the 9th hole when lightning struck and pouring rain followed. There was a rain delay followed by the tournament being rescheduled for the following week but then cancelled because of more rain to come. Regardless of the dreary weather, we had a great time meeting other volunteers. I say "we" because, once again, John came to help me. What a trooper. :) I now have a list of more CMN events in the Joplin area and am so excited to be a part of this wonderful organization.

"A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes..."

"Dreams do come true" seemed to be the resounding theme of the evening at the Lighthouse Children's Theatre Gala Concert in El Dorado Springs. I was asked to be a hostess for the event as well as the closing entertainment for the evening singing the Cinderella theme, "A dream is a wish your heart makes". I got to sing it with my dad which was really special to me. He has had a huge impact on the direction of my life and the musical dreams that I chase.

Ned Reynolds of KY3 in Springfield was the Emcee for the evening, and Jay Kenneth Johnson from Days of Our Lives was the guest of honor (and a handsome one at that). The event helped to raise funds for the new children's theatre in El Dorado Springs. Dinner was outstanding and our two guests were nothing short of inspirational. It was a great act of support for the arts in our community and the importance of feeding the fire in children who are aspiring actors, musicians, and artists. Each of us helped to make children's dreams come true, in our hometown, through this awesome event.
What a wonderful event to be held in El Dorado Springs!

22 Years Old!!!

Today is my birthday! 22 years and counting... hope it's a good number for me too. :)

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!!!

Yesterday (on actual Earth Day) I visited an elementary music classroom where they sang a song that said, "Every day is Earth Day...that means today is too!" And that makes sense. We should take care of Earth everyday, not just on April 22nd. And...I took a bag full of plastic bottles to a recycling collection location today. :)

Art Feeds

I have recently become involved with a wonderful non-profit organization called Art Feeds. It was started by a young woman my age in good ol' Joplin, Missouri where I am attending college! They bring art projects into classrooms of elementary students, primarily those with special needs. They strive to feed each child through art in its many forms. I was honored to join in on a lesson of "paper-mache people". I loved watching their young minds at work and had fun getting to know the kids. I am so excited about this group and the passion of its founders. To learn more about this organization or to make a donation, go to http://www.artfeeds.org/.

Public Forum

A political forum was held at the Opera House in El Dorado Springs. The three El Do Miss MO candidates were hostesses for the evening where we greeted guests and encouraged them to write down questions for the candidates. There were many serious issues and concerns that were addressed and lots of good points were made. However, my favorite underlying theme of the evening was that we are a God-fearing nation and it is completely appropriate to bring faith into our opinions on issues. It was humbling and encouraging to be in a room full of political leaders that were not afraid to stand and say, "I will keep God as my priority and make decisions according to how I believe."

Greater Kansas City Day

On a very early Monday morning, Miss Greater Kansas City (me) and Miss Kansas City Kari Gai joined other Kansas City Celebs and a small Jazz combo as volunteers on Greater Kansas City Day. Greater Kansas City day is celebrated on Royals opening day (hence the baseball diamond shape of this post. Nerdy, I know.) Every year, many volunteers around the Kansas City area set out to sell the morning paper and collect donations that go to a Rotary Club Youth Summer Camp for underpriveleged children. We made our first stop at an intersection before dawn. We had a blast dancing on the median with KC Wolf waving newspapers and a box of Krispy Kremes. (Some lucky generous people got a doughnut with ROYAL blue icing.) Pageants must be considered an athletic event because we were priveleged to join many other very talented athletes. Among these were NFL Hall-of-Famer, Bobby Bell; former KU basketball star, Bud Stallworth, former Chiefs player, Walter White; WWF wrestler the Brut, as well as the Chiefs mascot and Wizards mascot. Shortly after leaving from our first stop, we were slammed with some very heavy rain and hail! So waving the newspapers was put on hold but the cause was NOT. We stopped in at a few local radio stations to give a plug for all of the volunteers and the kids that would benefit. At one of our stops we were fortunate to be introduced to George Brett (BBWAA Hall of Fame Inductee). After our hard day's work we could finally stop for breakfast. :) What a great group of people to spend the morning with! 

**Another non-athlete celebrity with us was Miss Missouri USA 2002 Melana Scantlin who is pictured here with Bobby Bell and me.**

Mountain View Elementary Visit

      Over Spring Break, I visited Mountain View Elementary where my Miss Missouri Little Sisters go to school. John traveled with me as my back-up band. :) We visited all of the Kindergarten and 3rd grade classrooms where we celebrated March as Music In Our Schools Month. John played the guitar, mandolin, and banjo as the kids closed their eyes and tried to guess which instrument he was playing. We also made good use of recycled plastic sacks by putting them on our hands like gloves and rubbing our hands together to make a unique percussion instrument. I talked with the students about what it means to be Miss America, Miss Missouri, and a  Miss Missouri Little Sister.
It was an enlightening experience to actually teach a lesson to Elementary kids. I realized the difference in attention spans between Kindergarteners and third-graders. Both were a lot of fun!

< ---    The first thing I did with the very first class we visited was pass the crown around. They LOVED that! But I quickly discovered that Kindergarteners could spend all day trying it on and trying it on their friends. Haha. I decided to save that for the end of the lesson the next time.

 



They also got a Kick out of seeing their teachers being crowned and practicing the Miss America wave...especially when the teacher was a man. :) --->

After school, my little sisters and some of their family joined us for ICE CREAM!
Yum! They are such sweet kids and so much fun!
Hope I get to visit them again soon. :)

**SNOWY Spring Break**

The Saturday of Spring Break, I was driving home in the snow. And it did NOT stop! Before it was all said and done, we had almost 14" of snow in El Dorado Springs! So much for a nice outdoor run or game of basketball.
But - it was really beautiful... if you were viewing it from inside. :) Outside, the wind was harsh and you could barely open your eyes long enough to look around. There were some drifts that were clear up to my Dad's knees. 

TREK!!

We just finished the TREK program for this year. (TREK stands for Teaching Reading to Every Kid.) Community volunteers tutor elementary students in Reading and Math. I was paired with a third grade girl whom I met with every Tuesday after school for an hour. I've been tutoring this student since last September. And WOW, the changes that can happen in 7 months! Kids can come a long way in that amount of time. Sometimes I had two students if another tutor was absent that day. (Hence the two pictures. Had two students on the last day and they both wanted pictures, but someone had to operate the camera. haha.) I really enjoyed it. I developed a relationship with my student more like a mentor. I had always heard that you must maintain a "professional relationship" with your students and you can't be "friends" with them. I started to realize the truth in that advice. If I was too much like a friend on a certain day, it was hard to keep her on task. I let her know that I cared for her, but I was there to help her with her studies. Little bit tough for both of us to realize, but at the same time, it was a GREAT experience for a future teacher. :) Rejoicing in the everyday victories of tackling a big word or understanding fractions reassured me that I love teaching.

Mocks, Movie, and Man, why did we have to sit in the front row?

My first trip back to KC, since the pageant, was last weekend. FUN! Met Kari in Lee's Summit to ride the rest of the way up to Platte City for first round mock interviews. Little challenging helping Kari navigate through KC. Haha. By the way, Kari's my sister queen this year.  Yay for sisters! :) Mocks went well. I learn a little something about myself every time.

Later, my brother and my boyfriend (escorts for the weekend) picked me up in Lee's Summit and then we headed downtown to see a movie. We wanted to see Gretchen Wilson who was holding a free concert at Power and Light, but I forgot about the "21 years" rule and my brother isn't yet. So...we went to the rockin' Mainstreet AMC Theatre for dinner and Avatar. Fun, right? You'd think so, except our tickets were for the front row...and I have an extreme case of motion sickness when it comes to movies on a theater screen. I felt sick as soon as the previews started. Bummer! Awesome movie, but I didn't enjoy it to its full potential. I wanted to watch the end of it bad enough to force myself...and then I regretted it.

The Power and Light District, in case you were wondering, is a premier dining, entertainment, and shopping district in the heart of Kansas City. And it's Awesome!

A New Adventure Begins...

The Pageant was awesome! And not just because it turned out to be my night, but a little twist to this pageant...we had LIVE music during all of the onstage phases of competition. The Mikey Needleman Band is pictured with me here. They were wonderful!

I am so excited for the year ahead! I know I am in great hands with the KC Board, and there are many exciting opportunities awaiting in Kansas City, as well as all my other honorary hometowns.