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!