Service, Style, Scholarship and Succes

The Miss America 4 points of the crown stand for Service, Style, Scholarship and Success.  Out of these four points, service, has always been my favorite part of the Miss America Program. There is just something about giving that makes me feel whole. My platform deals with Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and I am fortunate enough to live in the same town as The University of Iowa Children's Hospital.  The UIHC has been named one of the top 10 best U.S. hospitals for years. Since I knew I would be doing a lot of hospital visits I decided to take on the challenge of becoming an official UIHC volunteer! However, I wasn't aware just how difficult of a process it is to become a volunteer or schedule visits in the hospital. This consisted of an orientation class, multiple health screenings and then 10 hours in the volunteer office getting to know the hospital    and all the volunteers. Although it was a long process it was well worth it! I can't wait to see which parts of the hospital my volunteering takes me.















Back in November I held a sticker drive.  Since so many donations are made throughout the holidays I decided to wait and make my donation now since they don't get as many.  Through social media and word of mouth I was able to donate over 9,000 stickers to the pediatric units at the children's hospital! A HUGE thank you to everyone who was able to donate stickers! I know the kids really loved it. 

Today is National Pancake Day at IHOP! IHOP gives out free pancakes and in return they hope you will donate to Children's Miracle Network.  Julia, Nina Yu (Miss Iowa's Outstanding Teen) were able to help encourage donations and have some pancakes at the Coralville location.  Thank you to the managers and staff for having us and being so welcome! 

My sister and I got to have some fun with style at Runway Prom and Pageant.  Neither of us Baker girls are camera shy and had the opportunity to model some dresses.  We had a blast!
  

Thank you to Le Chic Prom and Pageant for always making sure my style is perfect for evening gown!  Heather and Stacy always make sure you feel beautiful and 100 percent confident on stage.

   

One of the greatest aspects of the Miss America Program is that they are the largest scholarship program in the United States. This past weekend I was able to attend the Miss Macomb Pageant, a preliminary to Miss Illinois. One of my best friends took 2nd runner up and was awarded a scholarship for her platform essay.  I am so unbelievably proud of you Anna, you looked beautiful on that stage! Does anyone recognize her dress!?


    

  

Last but not least the success I have had the past couple weeks would not be possible if I didn't have such amazing friends and family! Thank you to everyone who has helped me throughout my journey to Miss Iowa, we are only a couple months away!


xoxo
Miss Pearl City 
Jessica Baker

DANCE MARATHON

$70,885.03. All. For. The. Kids.

Why do I dance? I dance for more hugs, for more laughs, for more best friends, for more first dates and for those who can't. 

A little bit of my DM history... 

I have been involved since elementry school, when we had two hour mini dance marathons. As I grew up I participated in University of Iowa's 24 hour dance marathon.  When I went to Western Illinios I decided that we needed a Dance Marathon. In 2013 we gathered an executive board together and made a goal of $12,000.  The day of the event came a year later and we flipped over $22,000! We almost doubled our goal! It was an incredible experience and we knew we could make it even bigger.  The following year I became the Vice President of Internal Operations working with dancer relations, morale, entertainment and anything that had to be done day of our big event. We made a large goal of $40,000.  It was slightly terrifying making our goal so much larger than the previous year but with a lot of hard work from the entire eboard and our amazing WIU dancers we managed to raise over $53,000!! 

As I graduated I still wanted to be invovled in Dance Marathon because Children's Miracle Network has a special place in my heart and I wasn't ready to part with it yet! I became the Western Illinois Univeristy Dance Marathon Alumni Director! I worked on getting more alumni involved and reaching out to them to raise our total.  Going into the event we we hadn't quite reached our goal of $70,000 FTK. We did some major fundraising pushes and doing all we could to make sure we did all we could to reach that goal.  As we made miracles happen WIU raised $16,000 within our 12 hour event! IT WAS INCREDIBLE! After 12 hours of standing on our feet, dancing and making memories our amazing miracles kids flipped over the most exciting number WIUDM had seen, $70,885.03!!!!!! 

Not only was I director of alumni relations but I also got the chance to perform too! I love every chance I get to twirl on stage and share my passion with others! This was just one of the amazing experiences I have had with Dance Marathon and I can't wait for the future and all we can do FTK!

  

                       

8 ONE 8 Fitness

This Past week I officially started my Journey to Miss Iowa!  I began my workouts with Jon Hunt of  8 ONE 8 Fitness in Davenport! He has been incredible to work with and has made working out actually fun!  My first workout last week reminded me how important breakfast is to your daily schedule. They do say it is the most important meal of the day and my body let me know it needed more energy! 8 ONE 8 gave me the confidence and encouragement I needed when working out and I couldn't be more happy with my prep towards that preliminary swimsuit win ;)

Working out and keeping a healthy lifestyle has always been something that I have enjoyed.  I grew up as a competitive gymnast and dancer, so I was constantly in the gym and staying fit.  After gymnastics I found myself dancing more and lifting to stay in shape.  8 ONE 8 fitness has continued to help me keep up with physical shape and has challenged me to push myself a little bit harder.  I know because of Jon at 8 ONE8 I will feel confident when I walk onto that Miss Iowa stage in June!  I am so grateful to have such an amazing Sponsor for the Miss Muscatine/Pearl City Program!

Instagram: 8ONE8FITNESS
Make sure to follow 8 ONE 8 fitness on Instagram and Facebook to see more amazing photos! You can also visit their website at www.8one8fitness.com





xoxo
Miss Pearl City
Jessica Baker

A Dream Come True

Hello and Welcome! 

My name is Jessica Baker and I am so excited to be your new Miss Pearl City 2016! The Miss Pearl City/Muscatine Scholarship Program is affiliated with the Miss Iowa and Miss America Scholarship Program.  These programs award thousands of scholarship dollars to women across America and on Saturday, I was honored to be one of those women! I was also blessed and so excited to not only walk away with the crown but the lifestyle and fitness awad, interview award and the community service award! 

 It was a crazy weekend filled with rehearsals, laughs, new friendships and rhinestones but it doesn't stop anytime soon--Miss Iowa Prep is in full swing and I couldn't be more excited! 

With this blog I hope that you are able to follow me through out my journey to Miss Iowa and get to know me better! You can also follow me on Instagram and twitter at JJBaker4 

I am a 22 year old graduate of Western Illinois University with a degree in Business Marketing and Dance.  I am originally from the Iowa City area--Go Hawks!  I have a passion for teaching dance and baton twirling. I am the owner and operator of Ambition Baton Twirling and I teach Dance in Muscatine at River City All-Stars. 

I have a 17 year old sister who is my best friend and means the world to me. Our dream came true on Saturday night when she was crowned Miss Pearl City's Outstanding Teen!! WE ARE SISTER QUEENS!  The most exciting thing about being in pageants together is you always have your number one supporter with you.  Sometimes all you need before you go on stage is the extra hug or words of encouragement.  

Making Miracles Happen 

My platform is Making Miracles Happen: For The Kids! It is all about raising awareness and getting involved with Dance Marathon! Dance Marathon is a year long fundraiser that raises money for Children's Miracle Network that all comes down to one main event! The participants take a pledge to stand the entire length of the Dance Marathon! Typically Dance Marathons last anywhere from 4 to 24 hours.  

I started Dance Marathon at Western Illinois and am currently the Alumni Chair for the organization. Our Dance Marathon is 12 hours long representing the shift of a doctor or a nurse.  If they can take care of children in the hospital for 12 hours a day without sitting, our dancers can do it having fun! 

"One day we will dance for joy, until then we will dance for life" 

That's all for now! 

xoxo 

Jessica Baker

Miss Pearl City 2016 

End of a Chapter...

Now that the holidays have past, time has sure caught up with me and it's time to end a chapter.  The new year is all about new chances and new beginnings and being able to use these 365 days to write a new story.  On January 9th, I will crown a new Miss Pearl City and I will be on the quest for a title myself, hoping to get a final shot at Miss Iowa.  Giving up your crown is a bittersweet thing.  I am very excited for someone else to continue their quest for Miss Iowa but for me I am leaving behind the wonderful board and sponsors of the Miss Muscatine and Miss Pearl City board.  I will again be out on my own dreaming the ever wonderful dream of hopefully one day becoming Miss Iowa.  Before I continue I want to take one final time to thank all the wonderful people who made this year, a year I will never forget. Thank you so much to so many people for this opportunity as Miss Pearl City.  First, thank you to my parents and brother for always supporting me no matter where pageants have taken me. My family is my core support system and without them I wouldn't be where I am today.   Thank you to Ashley and Kindra for polishing me up this year and giving me a year I won't forget.  Thank you for the memories of our shopping weekend, dress shopping, and countless other experiences we had together!  Thank you to our AMAZING sponsors; Le Chic Prom and Pageant, 8One8 Fitness, ANewU salon, Mississippi Pearl Photography, Jennifer Lintz and Legacy Pageant Consulting.  Jon at 8One8 Fitness and Michelle and Jessica at Legacy Pageant Consulting, I would of been lost this year without you all. Sometimes our sessions turned into therapy sessions but you always knew what to say and do to get me through the year.  Lastly, thank you to the Iowa March of Dimes for every opportunity you have provided me and the endless friendships that have been created!  This is a year I will never forget and it has shaped me into the person I am today more than I ever could of imagined. 

I can guarantee I gave this year my all and I can only hope that is how I am remembered.  Every opportunity is what you make of it and while I am sad to see this one end, I truly believe I got all I could from this year.  This may be the last time you hear from me as Miss Pearl City 2015, but it won't be the last time you hear from me, Christy Scimeca.  Like I said, this chapter may be over but this just apart of my dream.  

 For the last time, xoxo, Miss Pearl City 2015, Christy Scimeca.

Stay Curious!

One of the biggest fault I think we all have as humans is falling into a daily routine.  We start to settle without even knowing it.  Days, weeks and years can go by doing the same thing without change. We wake up go to work, run errands, hopefully find time to do something we enjoy, go to sleep and do it all over again. I also find myself falling into a similar routine; I wake up, workout, do things around my house, run some errands, catch up on TV shows, head to work then go to sleep and do it all over again.  

Today, I changed my routine and I was pleasantly surprised!  I wanted to workout but didn't feel like driving across town to go to the gym so I decided to take advantage of one of the last beautiful days to take a walk around my neighborhood.  I thought I knew about all the paths around me as I had explored before on foot and bike but I decided to walk a different way to see different houses.  I came to a path and decided to take it, little did I know that taking that path would change my entire day and outlook.  

I started walking with no intentions of exploring or wandering just with the intention of getting some exercise in for the day.  This path looked like it would lead to no where and I had no faith that it would lead me to something exciting.  But I kept walking on, at first the path was long and boring and didn't seem to go anywhere, then all of a sudden around the corner things changed.  I found myself walking under the interstate on this path that I thought led nowhere.  All of a sudden, like a diamond in the rough, I found a beautiful path, pond and scenery.  I walked for over two hours just exploring and wandering and finding new things.  There were times that I was uncertain where I was but I was never lost.  I took a moment to forget about everything that I needed to do today and I just enjoyed being curious and finding new things.  

Who know this was in my backyard!!

Pictures from my 2-hour 3.5 mile adventure!

What I took away from my walk was life holds a ton of unexpected adventures and you just have to have the courage to pursue them.  You have to stay curious about life to grow.  I challenge anyone who reads this to do one new thing a day.  No matter how big or small do something new and be curious about it.  Don't let yourself fall into a routine for the rest of your life.

Whatever your "path" may be and whatever your "adventure" may be just take it and just do it.  Not all paths lead somewhere great but you will be glad you took the chance.  The first step is always the hardest but from there anything is possible!

XO-Miss Pearl City, Christy Scimeca

Picking up the Pieces

Sometimes there is so much to say that you end up saying nothing at all.  That is what has happened to me since Miss Iowa. I lay in bed each night and run through the day and plan for the next and I often find my mind wondering every which way. It often happens in that time when you are not quite awake and not quite asleep, I wish I could get up and write it all down but I know if I do the thoughts will disappear.  So I just lay there and try to let the thoughts keep rolling and try to remember them all at the same time to jot them down the next day.  But in a moment's notice I drift off to falling asleep and those deep and what I thought were  profound thoughts disappear and they never make it out of my head.  But tonight is different.  I have been wanting to do a blog post for some time now but never could find the perfect words or the perfect thing to write about.  Different topics entered my mind but I always dismissed them with the thought why would anyone care about my opinion.  Then I went on with my day, week or even month searching for the perfect thing to say and write about.  I am not saying I found the perfect thing to write about because there isn't such a thing. But I did realize just that, there never is a perfect thing, it doesn't matter who reads this and it just matters that I am doing what I want to do and I am fighting for it.

To start this blog, I have to go back to June at the end of Miss Iowa week. The time since then has flown and sitting here it does't feel as if Miss Iowa was that far away but it really was and a lot has happened since then.  Here's a quick recap, in no order, that I can elaborate on later; I was able to enjoy almost an entire summer at home with my family, my family bought a condo in Florida, my cousin got married, I totaled my car, my brother has his senior pictures, and I got hired for a job that fits me perfectly working at the University of Iowa. After Miss Iowa I escaped, ignored my feelings and enjoyed life.

After Miss Iowa was hard.  There isn't much more to say than that.  In these next few paragraphs I am going to be very candid about my experiences and about how I felt in those moments and how I still feel about it.  For those of you who don't know me that well, I have a fear of failing.  I don't believe this fear is irrational and I believe it is one of the driving factors on why I have achieved so much in my life.  With that being said, going into Miss Iowa I knew it was my first time and I knew there were 15 other beautiful, wonderful, talented and driven ladies that I would be competing against but I tried to focus only on myself and block out all the other noise.  Going into Miss Iowa I had a plan, and like every other contestant my plan was to win. And when I say I had a plan, I am not kidding, ask my board and the ladies at Legacy, I had a full 5 page written business plan titled "Path to Miss Iowa" with a mission statement and all.  This plan kept me focused in preparing and it kept my focus on me.  Like I said I knew there were other contestants and I knew by no means did I think I was a shoe in, but I knew what I needed to do.  Mentally, I needed to plan how I was going to win.  Mentally, I had to go in knowing there was a greater chance of me not winning than there was of me winning, it was pure odds.  And that is what scared me the most, I had a significantly larger chance of "failing" than I did at "winning".  With this I without telling anyone or really realizing it myself started to prepare myself for less lofty goals. My goal started out as winning Miss Iowa 2015 is the only option, then it moved down to making top 5 would be like the gold medal trophy, then as I was in Miss Iowa week I  mentally prepared myself to only make the top ten. With each of these goal adjustments I had an inner fight of confidence, I wanted to so badly believe in myself but I also had to tell myself there's a chance you are not good enough.

After Miss Iowa, I told people close to me, the hardest part of Miss Iowa for me was, I mentally prepared myself in winning Miss Iowa, making just top 5 and only making top 10, but I had never prepared myself to not make the top 10.  And that is what hurt the most, in that moment when all ten names had been called and I realized mine wasn't, was one of, if not, the hardest moments of my life because my biggest fear had come true.  I had "failed" right there on that stage in front of an entire audience that consisted of a lot of people that not only I cared about but who came out of their way to support me.  I will openly admit that I cried the rest of the entire night and I continue to tear up now re-thinking about it.  In that moment and for days and weeks after I thought I had truly failed and I couldn't face that.  I was able to take time to be with my family and really distance myself from pageants and my failure.  I was able to hid from people long enough that when I saw them again they had forgotten about Miss Iowa and I didn't have to admit to my failure again.

But now I am ready to begin again, I was inspired after the wonderful weekend I had attending the "Light the Night" walk supporting Leukemia and Lymphoma and attending the FBLA Fall State Leadership conference talking to students about how I can help them support the March of Dimes in our National Partnership. This time I am starting in an even better place than I did before I won Miss Pearl City.  I have started to do what I know how to do best, and that is to plan.  I have reached out to those who know more than me and have recruited their help, expertise and extra set of eyes.  And I am truly thankful to them, especially the ones I don't personally know. I have purchased many different books to read and study up on, from books on the Miss America system to books that help you reach your goals.  I have immersed myself even further into my platform and started another job that encompasses both of my college degrees.

I now realize that I didn't truly fail because I tried and I gave it my all.  There are 7.125 billion people in this world and I let 5 of them take away my self worth for a period of time that I won't get back.  I learned a lot in my first run at Miss Iowa and I luckily have one more year to compete.  I am going to finish out my year strong as Miss Pearl City and then hopefully start the new year with a new local title and a ticket to Miss Iowa.

It is now close to 2 am and I should be in my second or third REM cycle by now but tonight was different, tonight I chose to catch all my thoughts and feelings on one page.  I am glad I did, but now my plan of going to the gym early before I head to my new job at the Dance Department at the University of Iowa, where I am the head athletic trainer is shot.

Goodnight,
Miss Pearl City
Christy Scimeca