The Miss America Day of Service is one of the most anticipated days of the pageant year. All around the country, all local, state, and national teen and miss titleholders take part in community service activities in their area. There is a competition for which state can have the most involvement. Last year, Indiana came in THIRD out of all 50 states, D.C, and Puerto Rico!

Indiana’s titleholders were out in full force yesterday doing everything from 5k’s and dress giveaways to community beautification projects and random acts of kindness. We truly have some of the most kind-hearted titleholders in this state. These beautiful girls never cease to amaze me! Here’s how our titleholders spent the day giving back!

DEMIE: INNOVATIONS IN LEARNING EASTER EGG HUNT

Miss Great Lakes, Demie, and Director, Rachel, were up bright and early to volunteer at the Innovations in Learning Easter Egg Hunt! Innovations in Learning, which is where Rachel works as an ABA Therapist, is a company dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities. Services include an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) clinic for children with Autism, behavior and music therapies, an adult day service program for adults with disabilities, and many other services. The egg hunt was special needs friendly but was open to anyone in the community. There were 4 hunts: 2-5 years, 6-12 years, 13 years and up, and an open hunt for everyone to participate in. Everyone had the best time and Demie quickly became a crowd favorite, especially for the little girls who wanted to “be a princess just like her!”

Demie even made a new friend with an awesome anchor shirt! Perhaps she’s a future Miss Great Lakes?!

One of our favorite new friends we made was quite smitten with Demie. He tipped his fedora, showed her his smooth talking ways, and knew just how to charm the ladies! He even wore his bucket to have a crown to match Demie’s!

 “Mr. Great Lakes”, aka. Demie’s beau, also came along to volunteer!

Thank you, Innovations in Learning, PC, for allowing Team Anchor to join you!

LILY: “IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ANIMALS” BENEFIT & DANCE MARATHON FOR RILEY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Our Lily Girl originally planned to join us in Merrillville for the Easter egg hunt, but she was unable to make it and decided to volunteer in her community. Her platform is “Save a Life” which brings attention to the importance of adopting shelter animals, so she was very excited to volunteer to hang out with the sweet fur babies at the shelter’s benefit!

Unfortunately, due to an emergency at the shelter the animals Lily was supposed to be hanging out with weren’t able to show up to the event. Instead of letting it get her down, Lily kicked off those heels and danced for 6 HOURS to raise money with the dance marathon for Riley Children’s Hospital!

Even when her initial plans fell through, our Miss Great Lakes Outstanding Teen found a way to serve and give back!

 

WE ARE SO INCREDIBLY PROUD OF OUR GIRLS!

We feel so blessed to have titleholders with such big hearts and with an eagerness to serve. Not only did they give 110% on the national day of service, but they continue to serve throughout the year for both causes related to their platform and those that don’t. We couldn’t be more proud to call them our girls!

 

SO WHAT’S NEXT ON THE DOCKET?

• April 30th we have Kick-Off and Miracle Bowl, which is another day we are always super excited for! Our bowling team theme is picked and we cannot wait to spend the day with our Miss Indiana family in a couple weeks! Even more exciting, is we will also be revealing our girls’ state headshots! They are gorgeous and we cannot wait to share them with all of you!
• June 11-17th is Miss Indiana Week! After kickoff, we will know what days the girls will be competing in each phase of competition, so stay tuned for that information!
• 2017 Pageant: TBA. Right now it is looking like late October/Early November. We will post the official date and location once we get things finalized!