The Sweeps Pageant!

Saturday February 27th, nine beautiful and talented women competed for the titles of Miss City of Lakes 2010 and Miss West Metro 2010. Miss Minnesota was severely sick and was unable to attend the pageant to crown the new title holders. Since I was Miss City of Lakes 2009 and Kathryn Knutilla was Miss West Metro 2009, we were asked to give a performance and crown the two new lucky ladies :-)

This was such an honor and Kathryn and I were very excited to be apart of the show. I sang the National Anthem and Kathryn performed a beautiful piece on the piano. I arrived a couple of hours before the pageant to get to know the contestants a little bit before the show started. All the contestants seemed like they were having a lot of fun! Everyone looked incredible and I knew the judges had a very difficult job ahead of them. I was put to work by the contestants as well :-) I put on multiple false eye lashes and did quite a bit of back combing before the show started!

Kathryn and I had the opportunity to be interviewed on stage during the pageant. We were asked about what our past year has been like, the benefits of competing in the sweeps pageant and of course we told a couple stories about competing for Miss Minnesota last year.

During intermission it was so great to chat with all the local title holders again! It was a great outcome, almost everyone was there!

Now the time came to crown the new title holders! I have never crowned anyone yet and I was so excited! I had many bobby pins ready in my hand. Congratulations to the New Miss City of Lakes 2010, Liz Abbas! I gave her a big hug and tried to put the crown on her head as fast as my hands could move. I was so proud that I put the crown on straight!

Now it was Kathryn's turn, congratulations to the New Miss West Metro 2010, Siri Freeh! Kathryn needed a little assistance putting on the crown but it turned out perfect! Two new title holders in one night!

It was a night filled with fun and laughter and it made me realize how excited I am to compete for the title of Miss Minnesota this summer. Can you believe it's only 104 days away!

I am on spring break for this next week and will be up in Moorhead making many appearances and having two more fundraisers! Stay tuned, there will be many blog updates this next week :-)

Always,

Bethany Beniek

National Pancake Day!

Tuesday, February 23 was National Pancake Day at IHOP! All IHOP's across the nation donate a free short stack of pancakes to anyone who comes in to eat. All they ask for in return is any kind of donation towards the Children's Miracle Network!

I celebrated National Pancake Day at the IHOP located in Waite Park. Since I have class all day I decided to go in for just an hour before class in the morning. I spoke with everyone who came in and told them all about The Children's Miracle Network to hopfully persuade them to donate :-) Everyone who donated put their names on the CMN Balloon and we taped them up for everyone to see (as shown in the photo above)!

Thank you to the Waite Park IHOP for letting me make an appearance at your restaurant! I had a great time.

Always,
Bethany Beniek

Pizza Ranch Fundraiser

On February 15th, Pizza Ranch located in Waite Park hosted a fundraiser for me to raise money for the Miss Moorhead Scholarship Organization and the Children's Miracle Network! It was a great success, almost my entire family came. It was amazing to see so much support! I am very lucky to have had such a fortunate evening filled with incredible oportunities and conversation.

The Pizza Ranch staff was so great to work with! The manager, Brittany, competed in pageants a few years ago! She was Miss Nisswa :-) We shared many laughs and of course did some "pageant talk." We had such an incredible evening that the Waite Park Pizza Ranch has invited me back to have 2 more fundraisers!! They will be held on March 22nd, and April 12th!! How exciting!!

I want to thank the Pizza Ranch for such a successful evening! I also want to thank all my family and friends that attended this fundraiser, if it wasn't for you it wouldn't have been so triumphant :-) And last but certainly not least, Thank you to my Mom and my boyfriend Travis for bussing the tables, you kept all the tables so clean and worked extemely hard during those three hours! We couldn't have done it without you!

Always,

Bethany Beniek

ps. I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. My boyfriend surprised me with an incredible bouquet of flowers and took to me to see the movie "Valentine's Day." I loved it!! He also got me a "Shure Beta 58A" microphone!! I have been wanting a nice microphone to practice with for a long time now and he got me one :-) It was so nice to take a break for a day, away from work, away from school, to simply relax and spend some time with someone I love ;-) I hope everyone found some time to do the same!

Letter from the Mayor

Thank you Mayor Voxland for this very thoughtful note!!

Always

Bethany Beniek

Miss Coon Rapids 2010

After singing the National Anthem at St. Ben's, I drove down to attend the Miss Coon Rapids Pageant. When I arrived, the auditorium was packed with many people. This was the 50th year anniversary of the city of Coon Rapids. There were many past Miss Coon Rapids who attended and told their favorite memories to the audience, even the Mayor of Coon Rapids got up on stage and said a few words.

The pageant was filled with beautiful and talented women. Miss America's Outstanding Teen, Jeanette Morelan, was a special guest! I was so excited to see her perform her talent, I even got to meet her during intermission, what a delightful young women! Someone told me that she was only 14 years old! Unbelievable!

I was looking forward to seeing Brooke after the Miss America Pageant to hear all about her experience, but the poor woman was sick!! She lost her voice :-( I hope you get better soon Brooke!!

Congradulations to the first runner up, Quinn Nystrom, and the new Miss Coon Rapids 2010 Allison Lordbock!! Only one more local pageant until the contestant workshop! I hope to see you all on February 27th at the Sweeps Pageant :-)

Always,

Bethany Beniek

National Girls and Women in Sports Day Celebration

On February 6th, I had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem for the St. Ben's vs. Concordia College girls basketball game. If you didn't know I am a student at the College of St. Benedicts and Concordia College is located in Moorhead, so I was really representing both teams :-) I'm sure everyone was confused when I was wearing a St. Ben's Blazers sweatshirt with my Miss Moorhead sash and crown. The gym was packed and it was great to see so much support on "National Girls and Women in Sports Day." Thanks Dad for video taping and Mom for taking photos!

Always,

Bethany Beniek

Miss America 2010!!

And the New Miss America 2010 is....

MISS VIRGINIA - CARESSA CAMERON

This past Saturday I watched Miss America 2010 on TLC at my own Miss America party :-) My mom and sister decorated our basement with pink streamers and bought everyone little crowns to wear. My dad pulled down the projector and we watched it in life size!! As you can see from the photos it was almost like I was there!! We tried to buy healthy snacks to eat like fruit pizza, and juice boxes. I don't think I have ever been as excited to watch Miss America as I was this year. Maybe it was because I actually knew our Miss Minnesota, Brooke Kilgarriff. Throughout the entire week I kept myself updated on how she was doing. She was Quality of Life Finalist, and non-finalist talent winner. Brooke represented Minnesota so well!

When they named the top 15 finalists, I really had no idea who was going to win. It wasn't until the on-stage questions where I finally chose Miss Virginia to be the winner. Everyone had great bodies, decent talents and evening gowns. This is where I realized how important interview is within this system, which is one of the reasons I respect the Miss America Organization so much. It doesn't matter if you have the perfect body, the perfect evening gown, or even perfect talent, if you want to be Miss America you must be able to speak! When I watched the 20 minute press conference of Caressa Cameron after she was crowned, she amazed me. She was so genuine, confident and passionate about everything she was talking about. What an intelligent woman to be representing our great nation.

Time has been flying by! I've been so busy I have learned to value every spare second. I will be singing the National Anthem for the St. Ben's vs. Concordia girls basketball game this Saturday, February 3rd. It is the "National Girls and Women in Sports Day Celebration." After that I will be driving down to attend the Miss Coon Rapids Pageant :-) Hopefully I'll see you all there!!

Always

Bethany Beniek