2014 was a great year! Can't wait for 2015!

Springfield Christmas Parade and Miss Joplin Pageant

I had a great weekend with all of my sister queens as we participated in the Springfield Christmas Parade and attended the Miss Joplin Pageant!  I'm so excited to get to work with this board and these amazing girls this year. It's going to be a great year!

417 Teen Queens

My TV interview before the parade

Congratulations to Alexis Tella, the new Miss Joplin Outstanding Teen!

Ed!

Miss Springfield's Outstanding Teen 2015

Miss Missouri's Outstanding Teen, Charlee Bisch, crowning Rachel Spurling

I am so excited to announce that on November 15th, I was crowned Miss Springfield's Outstanding Teen for 2015. I am so excited to continue to promote my platform of Operation Fit Kids and to serve in the Springfield area. I look forward to my year of service with this title and plan to represent Springfield well at the Miss Missouri OT pageant in June.

4th of July Festivities

2013 Little Miss and Mister Independence

These are quite the patriotic characters!

Anna - one of the VERY CUTE contestants!

This year's Little Mister Independence

This weekend I had so much fun being asked to judge at the River Region Credit Union "Little Miss and Mister Independence Day Pageant" in Jefferson City, Missouri. We had a great day with 80 degree temperatures to ride in the parade and then I had the pleasure of seeing 25 kids compete for the 2 titles. They were all ages 4 - 6 years old and were ADORABLE!  Thank you River Region Credit Union for inviting me to this event!

Day 1 is here!

After 9 months of speaking engagements, appearances, mock interviews, and talent preparation, it is finally time for the Miss Missouri Outstanding Teen Pageant!  Here is the class of 2014 that will be competing for the title. I'm so excited to see old friends and make new friends as well! It should be a great week!

My Welcoming sign to the pageant! Thank you to my Grandparents!

The 21 contestants competing this week.

Randall, Jacqueline, Megan and me! We are so ready!

Talent Preview

 

I’m so excited to be able to perform my talent this Friday morning at the Miss Missouri Outstanding Teen pageant. Choosing a talent song to dance to is a VERY difficult task. I finally decided that a song was not the choice that I wanted to make, so I am dancing to an abbreviated version of the poem “Say, Yes” by Andrea Gibson.  This version, set to a guitar accompaniment is a compelling, thoughtful poem about selfless people that have touched our lives, particularly, selfless women.  It’s a departure from your normal pageant dance numbers, and I hope you will enjoy it.

Platform Reflections

While thinking about my platform and the upcoming Pageant next week, I have been reflecting on how blessed I have been this year to get to speak with so many elementary and middle school aged students. Promoting Operation Fit Kids and speaking to students about the importance of a healthy diet, exercise, and getting enough sleep. Thank you to all of the teachers at Shepard Elementary, Russell Blvd Elementary, Rock Bridge Elementary, Fairview Elementary, Mill Creek Elementary and Gentry Middle School who graciously allowed me to come into your 20 + classrooms to speak to more than 600 children about my platform.

Thank you to my dance studio for giving me time to speak with parents about how important their influence is on children and supporting their kids by providing fun ways for them to stay fit.

Thank you to my fabulous 14 friends at Rock Bridge High School who volunteered their time to come out and spend their Saturday showing 60 young children how much fun that fitness can be. I couldn't have done this event without you!

I plan to continue promoting Operation Fit Kids in the upcoming year and hope I can reach even more parents and children who will embrace the benefits of practicing a fit lifestyle.

Fitness Fun Day Participants and Volunteers

Preview Party

Megan, Jacqueline, Mary, Brittney, Maddie, Randall, Rachel

Miss Chesterfield Valley and Miss Chesterfield Valley OT 2014

Today my local pageant directors held a preview wardrobe showing for us at Lindenwood University.  Here's a Preview of the dresses that we will be wearing for the opening number!  The Miss Missouri/Miss Missouri Outstanding Teen Pageant Prelims start in just 9 days, on June 4th, 2014. The Teen winner will be crowned on June 6th and the Miss on June 7th. Come on over to Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri to see us compete! Tickets can be purchased through the Mexico Missouri Chamber of Commerce or at the door.

Thank you to my fabulous pageant directors, Pawnee Stathem, Lauren Ryan, and Keitt Stathem for all you have done to prepare us this year with mock interviews, talent rehearsals, walking lessons, and fitness prep. We sincerely appreciate your time and all that you have done for us! 

Women's and Children's Hospital Go Girl Run

I was so happy today to be able to volunteer with my friend Rontayza for the MU Women's and Children's Hospital Go Girl Run 5K and 1/2 marathon.  There were over 1,000 participants from all over the country and it was so exciting getting to see women put fitness first and take care of themselves. Women are usually guilty of taking care of everyone else before themselves and it was good to see all of the families there cheering them on. I saw moms carrying toddlers, pushing strollers, running with their children and even running while pregnant over the finish line after the 13.1 mile 1/2 marathon!

I was so excited to support one of my teachers from 6th and 7th grade, Molly Froidl, as she completed her first 5K. She has made fitness a priority in her life in the last couple of years and we talked about how it had improved her health and her relationships with her children and husband.  This just reinforced to me how important my platform, Operation Fit Kids is, and how much influence parents have in shaping fitness as a lifestyle for their children.

My Boyfriend's Back

That was the name of the song my Jazz 1 class performed to today at the 5th of 5 Columbia Performing Arts Centre recitals for the weekend. Hard to believe this season is over! It was a great year sharing my love of dance with these girls. I hope to see them again next year!

Where does a dancer go after recital? Andy's, of course! I ran into Whitney at Andy's after our recital.

Hair Practice

Thanks to the lovely Reba for helping me practice my pageant hair today! One more thing to check off the list to preparing for Miss Missouri's Outstanding Teen. Just 20 days until MMOT 2014 is crowned!

Fairview Elementary Fifth Graders - Graduation!

Congratulations to these soon to be graduating Fairview Elementary Fifth graders. They were one of my favorite classes that I got to speak with this year promoting my platform "Operation Fit Kids". Thank you to Mrs. Hummel, Mr. Earls, Mrs. Lusby, and Mrs. Wilcoxson for letting me visit all of your classes and spend some time with your special kids!

24/7 Dance Convention in Dallas

This weekend I was privileged to attend the 24/7 Dance Convention in Dallas! I spent Saturday in training with some famous choreographers including Twitch and Sonya Tayeh from So You Think You Can Dance. That evening, I competed in my 7 group dances from CPAC from 4:00 - 10:30. We were back up and dancing on Sunday morning at 8am for another day of training with some really great choreographers! 11 classes and 7 dances in 48 hours. This was a HUGE convention, and I was fortunate enough to be picked for a finalist in the Non-Stop Dancer Award. I'm ready for a little rest and then we're ready for recital next weekend!

Fitness Fun Day Revisted

I've been working with all of the photos we took at Fitness Fun Day and put a short video together highlighting the fun that everyone had. Thanks to the 60 kids and 20 volunteers that turned out to help make the event such a great success in promoting my platform of Operation Fit Kids as well as raising money for MU Children's Hospital.  I've shared it on YouTube so everyone can enjoy. If you were there, see if you can spot yourself in the video! I hope to have another Fitness Fun Day soon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU_239tZQp8

Jazz Class Rehearsals

CPAC Jazz I Class

I'm so proud of my CPAC Jazz I class. These little girls have come so far and learned so much this year! They are ready to perform at the CPAC Recital in a couple of weeks. They are going to be awesome. It has been such an honor getting to work with this great group of girls this year.

Jazz I - We work hard and have fun!

Rachel Spurling, April NEWSLEADERS TV Interview

Photo Shoot

What a great weekend!  Lovely weather and I got to spend a day with the EXTREMELY talented Marshall Meadows shooting photos both indoors and out, at Branson. There are some awesome places for pics and I was privileged to have the opportunity to get some. Here is a preview of some of the photos.

Hard to believe, but this is a real location in Branson.

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Project Runway - Recycle Challenge

Today I was asked to judge a Project Runway competition at my former middle school for my FACS teacher. The students were asked to take "clean" trash and make it into a garment and model it in class. The other judges and I were allowed to ask them questions about their designs and we had to vote on a winner just like the TV show. It was so much fun seeing what the students had designed and visiting with this age of students, just a bit younger than me. Thank you to Mrs. Scanlon for inviting me to see her very talented class! I had a blast. Here are some pictures of the designs.

Here I am posing with some of the talented models!

Judges for the 2nd round - Mr. Drennan, Mrs. Thomas and me.

Judges for the 1st round - Mr. Aulgur, Mr. Carter, Mr. Horstmann, Ms. Cunningham, and me

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Orientation and CPAC Showcase

We are now less than 60 days until we have to be in Mexico, Missouri for the Miss Missouri pageant. Last weekend I got to meet with the directors and meet all of the contestants at orientation. There are a great group of girls this year and I am so looking forward to renewing old friendships and making new ones. I will be competing in the preliminary evening gown competition on Thursday night, with my interview on Wednesday afternoon.

Once a Sister Queen, always a Sister Queen, with Charlee Bisch, Miss Metro St. Louis Outstanding Teen

After a quick trip to Mexico for the orientation I raced back to Columbia for the Columbia Performing Arts Center competition showcase. This is where we perform all of our competition dances for our families and friends so they can see what we are competing when we go out of town. There were 2 shows that were both nearly sold out and the team looked great! I am so thankful to be a part of this organization that has such high quality teachers and facilities for me to train at. Thank you to Miss Nancy Laurie for providing us with the amazing facility and program.

Miss Heartland's, Miss Gateway's and Miss Chesterfield Valley's Misses and Teens

Fitness Fun Day memories

I ran across this adorable note today from my little friend Kayla who attended my Fitness Fun Day with about 60 other kids back in January. She wrote me this note telling me how much fun that she and her sister had!  I'm glad my event inspired her and I hope it did others as well. Hope to have another one soon!

Headshots

Thanks to the fabulous Lance Tilford at Limelight Studio for sponsoring the Miss Gateway St. Louis/Chesterfield Valley Pageant with these great photos!  Love them!

If We Know Exercise is Good For Us, Why Don't We Do It?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a talk on the M.U. Campus on the above topic, "If We Know Exercise is Good For Us, Why Don't We Do It?"  Frank Booth of the Biomedical Sciences department gave me some great information to use for my platform. Did you know that lack of exercise contributes to death in the United States every 45 seconds?  That was a disturbing fact to me and just reinforced the importance of my platform and not only stressing to children, but people of all ages, about how important exercise is.

IHOP Pancake Day

Miss Boone County and Miss Boone County OT 2013 reunited!

Visiting with customers

Serving Short Stacks

Waiting for more pancakes

Maiketa, Rachel and Hanna

with TJ

TJ and Maiketa

Hanna and I serving a table

with Maiketa, Kristen and Hanna

Thank you to everyone who came out to IHOP to have a short stack and support MU Children's Hospital. Thank you IHOP for having this event!