Check out the site for some amazing, and potentially life saving, information!
Some of my best High School memories were during Relay for Life on a team with many of my closest friends. This years event was very different for me though. I was on the team Courageous Crowns which was captained by the beautiful rock star volunteer Laura Pankratz, and many of our team mates were fabulous princesses and of course my beautiful Outstanding Teen Alice!
Our team activity was face painting and luckily Alice and the princesses are incredibly artistic because Laura and I...not so much.
Ashley being an awesome princess face painter!
We had a blast walking around the track, meeting everyone, and keeping the ball of hope rolling around the track. There were so many great activities throughout the day on stage, and one even prompted a little reunion for me! In kindergarten Taj was by far the coolest kid in school, and because of my peanut allergies, and the lack of understanding by our school of anaphylaxis, Taj and I had lot of lunch dates. We both knew what it was like to be a little different so he always had peanut free lunches so no one had to eat alone. As a child I understood that he was in a wheelchair so he couldn't do everything the same as I could, but now with my MDA work I understand so much more. Taj has SMA which is one of the many diseases MDA helps with, I didn't realize until he said it in the song in the video below that we have certainly traveled in the same circles for years, and that MDA was a part of my life way before I knew it! Taj is a one of a kind guy who never let his diagnosis stop him and now he is an AMAZING hip-hop artist and aspires to also be a motivational speaker. His group K-town is awesome and when you listen to the video you will see why I am a huge fan!
As Relay went on and the sun set it was time for the crowns to get down to business and get ready for the most difficult portion of Relay for me, the luminaria ceremony. As a lot of you already know a friend of mine and one of my fathers wrestlers passed away because of soft tissue Sarcoma around Easter, Michael Kroppman had a huge team at Relay this year and he probably had the most luminaria bags there.
RIP buddy.
These bags surround the track and each have a candle in them, they all represent someone who is fighting, lost their lives to, or survived cancer. Laura, Alice, and I had the honor to light all of these bags. During the actual ceremony there was a slide show of people from our area who had lost their battle, it was definitely the toughest portion of the event for me and probably everyone else as well. This was followed by a lap of silence with all 739 participants.
Lighting candles and talking to Kevin Hume my favorite reporter!
After the ceremony, despite the tears, everyone was reinvigorated and impassioned about what we were doing. There were more night time walkers this year than I had ever seen! Together we raised $103,417! Not too shabby for little Lake County if you ask me. All of the funds raised by this event go to the American Cancer Society to help raise awareness and fund research. Overall it was an amazing event and I am so glad I got to be a part of it!
Thank you Lake County for supporting this great event year after year!
My awesome shirt made by Miss Santa Clara, check out her blog at
Today was such a fun opportunity to educate people about MDA and raise more funds for camp! The MDA crew, Miss Sonoma Jessica Greer, and I locked people up for having a big heart! I got to be the public defender and negotiate the bail with Judge Bobby, MDA staff member extraordinaire . To help raise their bail our jailbirds made phone calls for hours and did such an amazing job! I am always so proud seeing all of the support MDA gets from communities all over the state! We raised a little over $31,000 which is twice what our goal for the day was!
Two hardened criminals!
One of our awesome jailbirds!
Our jailbirds definitely used their most important muscle to make a difference today, their hearts!
Brianna and I used to teach together, now we get to perform solos because we're all grown up!
This post is a little late, but better late than never right? I was so blessed last weekend to be able to perform in the Lake County Dance Festival this year! Some of my fondest memories growing up were backstage for this show, I have done countless dances in it but this was my first time getting to perform a solo. It was a blast reuniting with the dancers, spending some extra time with Alice, and of course getting a chance to practice my talent piece for Miss California.
Loved getting to spend extra time with my mini me!
After performing Sunday I ran back stage to get into my gown and touch up my make up because I was off to Stars of Lake County! I've heard about this event for years, but it was above and beyond my expectation! The venue was beautiful, and the food was amazing! During dinner a list of visiting dignitaries was announced which included Mike Thompson first district U.S. Congressman , right then I was impressed and excited, the list went on and a few names down was me! I am not ashamed to admit I squealed a little, I'm a dignitary?! A few minutes later Alice and I got to meet him! Who knew a U.S. Congressman who's done so much for the people of Lake County would have such a great sense of humor!
So excited!
It was such a fun event and a great way to get to know some of the pillars in our community. Congratulations to all the nominees, you help so much to continually improve our beautiful county!
This last weekend was another crazy one for this busy bee! After work I high tailed it to Lake County to work with my brilliant choreographer Sheila so we could put some finishing touches on my dance. If you would like to see the new and improved version, Alice and I are performing our talent's at the Dance Festival this coming weekend so pick up some tickets it's going to be a great show featuring dancers from all over the county!
Next stop was the "Taste of Italy" fundraising dinner for Miss Lake County. This was a fantastic evening with good food, great people and an amazing auction. Alice and I spoke for a little bit about our platforms and our year so far, then quickly changed into our talent outfits while our fabulous princesses did their dance. Alice and I got to be Vanna White for the evening which was really fun. We also had our fabulous auctioneer Rob Brown to make the auction even more fun, Rob has been a great supporter of the Miss Lake County Organization for a long time, and it doesn't hurt that I've known him since I was five.
Speaking of people who have made an impact on me since I was five, many of you may already know that my dream of becoming Miss Lake County began when I was five and the current Miss Lake County was my babysitter. Pulling my inspiration from that my mom and I decided to make a princess basket for the auction with a coupon in it for a night of baby sitting from yours truly! I am so excited to spend an evening with Angie, and she was so excited she put the Cinderella crown that was in the basket right on!
Throughout the night I was also making plugs for a couple of other things that I'd like to talk about now just in case you missed it. As a Miss California Contestant I am trying to get as many ads into the Miss California program book as possible. This works to a business advantage because not only do you get state wide advertising, you also get an ad in the Miss Lake County program book so you get local recognition too! On top of all that greatness, you also get the satisfaction of knowing that the price of the ad goes into scholarships for me, and young women like me so that we can reach our educational goals. Contact misslakecounty@gmail.com for more information or send a message on the official Miss Lake County Facebook.
The other item I kept bring up over and over again is Lego's! I am doing a Lego drive so that the MDA Lego cabin stays fully stocked for years to come, especially with Lego people and wheels! I received some very generous donations on Saturday towards this cause but if you missed it don't worry that wasn't your only chance! This drive will be going until June 15th! If you would like to know where you can donate, or if you have a big donation you would like to have picked up, send an email to buildadifference@yahoo.com!
After all of that we had some official princess business to attend to! As you may have read already, when I am home in Lake County I spend a lot of time at the local nursing homes. It is such a rewarding appearance because I get to meet a lot of great people in a one on one situation and get to know them a little better every visit. We had a special guest at our fundraiser from Evergreen Healthcare, and I had the opportunity to make her an official Miss Lake County princess! We had such a blast crowning her and she was so excited!
The next day I had more princess time, but this time with the Miss Solano and Miss Napa princesses! I had the honor of being invited to their princess party at the lovely home of their fabulous directors Sara and Gabino. We had pizza, cupcakes, crafts and crowns. What more could a girl want?! I had such a blast and have some very fun ideas for the Miss Lake County princess party!
Miss Sacramento, Miss Napa, princesses, Miss Solano and I!
