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.