Billiards Tournament at Dover Downs

Last Friday, during race weekend, Dover Downs held their usual Billiards Tournament. Some celebrities included: Brian Gurry host of American Builder (he was playing for MDSO), Katie Stam (our current Miss America), Russ from the Deadliest Catch (he won the whole thing!), Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, and Casey Mears just to name a few.

Bill and Linda Pusey came with me to the event with their friend Charlie. It was a pleasure to meet Charlie and to get to spend some time with Bill and Linda. Before the tournament started I was able to hang out in the waiting room where all of the players were hanging out. So naturally we took some pictures. Hopefully I can come across other pictures that were taken during that time because I know there were a few cameras flashing.

It was wonderful being able to see Katie Stam again and catch up a little during the event. She looked beautiful as always!

Every player was competing for a charity that they wanted to be able to donate funds to. Like I said earlier, Brian was the MDSO's player. He placed in second the last two years! He was doing a wonderful job and then unfortunately scratched as he put in the winning ball. I felt so bad! He completely dominated the game and then right at the end it didn't work out. We decided we should protest for a rematch...but we didn't.

It was a great event and I want to thank Dover Downs for inviting me to participate in it. It is amazing to see how much support the MDSO receives from places like Dover Downs. We cannot thank you enough!

I know it has been a while

The winners!


The Mayors of both sides of Delmar, MD and DE


riding on the back of Denny's mustang

The last couple weeks have been busy busy busy! I still have more to come this week but I thought I should update you some so that you aren't overwhelmed with reading everything all at once. September 20th was the 150th Birthday Celebration for the city of Delmar. It was a week packed with events, but I only made it to Sunday to help kick it off. It started with a parade through the city, where I rode on the back of a beautiful mustang convertible. Then we all gathered under the tent for opening remarks by the mayor of Delmar for Maryland and the mayor of Delmar for Delaware. The chief of police actually told me that Delmar's police force is the only one left that has jurisdiction in two states...how cool is that! Then I was able to judge the Little/Miss Delmar Fire Prevention pageant which is a preliminary pageant to the Delmarva Fire Prevention Pageant. It was a tough job! Go figure why I enjoy competing...then somebody else has to judge! Jolene was wonderful to work with and everyone in the town was so welcoming and they were all excited to have me celebrate with them.

The cutest part of the whole day was when I opened my judges gift bag to find a button inside. It wasn't just any button. It was a button to exempt me from the cosmetic rule. Let me explain... 150 years ago, the women in Delmar did not wear make up and the men all had beards. So the rule for the day was if a policeman caught a women wearing make up or a man clean shaven they could be "arrested" and fined $10. Now you could purchase this button for $5 allowing you to get away with it. But if you chose not to spend the $5 you could end up being fined $10. So that was one of my gifts for judging. If you look closely in my picture you'll see what I'm talking about!

about to judge-wearing my button!

Fall Festival and Meals on Wheels

This past Saturday rounded out my busy weekend with two great events. First, I went to the Fall Festival in Milford to work the Miss Delaware Booth for a few hours with my mom and Georgeann. We were raffling off a harvest basket that was really nice! I walked around with Georgeann for a while and signed autographs while I tasted various samples of desserts and other food being sold. All in all I think it was successful! I saw a lot of familiar faces, which is always nice.

Later that evening I went to the first annual Kent County Meals on Wheels fundraiser and auction at the Agricultural Museum in Dover. It was a wonderful event! The place sold out! The food was amazing and the variety was impressive. There were silent auction items ranging from tickets to an Eagle's or Phillies' game to pieces of jewelry and golf trips. I even got to model one of four live auction pieces which was an emerald and diamond necklace. It was beautiful and sold for $800!!!

getting ready for the auction

The winners!

I met a lot of people that night. It is always interesting to me how easy it is to just talk to people. At events like this, my job is to talk to as many people as possible and do my own networking for possible future events. It can seem overwhelming at first, but once I get there I become at ease. Most of the time people come to me and strike up a conversation, but other times I just have to walk right up and start my own conversation. It really helps me work on speaking extemporaneously, which is always helpful come time for interview. I can't express enough how touched I am by the support events like this receive. Thank you Debi for getting me involved in the evening's activities.

Chuck Ivins and me

Mr. and Mrs. Gibson and me

Ray Ianni, his son, and me

Till next time...