Yesterday, April 2nd, was a day filled with pageant festivities. In the morning, I attended the Miss Minnesota Workshop where all the contestants came together to hand in all of our paperwork and get updated on all the events during Miss Minnesota week. It was very exciting to see all the contestants together, if it's possible it just made me even more excited for Miss Minnesota week in June!
Allison and I
We started the morning off handing in our paperwork and then meeting with the Miss Minnesota State board. We all introduced ourselves and got right down to business picking contestant order. If you didn't know the two top sellers of advertisment pages got to pick their contestant order first. Congratulations to Meghan Kuznia for selling the most ad pages and Samantha Phillippe for selling the second most! They sold 9 and 6 ad pages, that is phenomenal! I was very fortunate this year to sell 5 ad pages myself. If you want to see them I have attached them below. A HUGE thank you to A.K. Productions, TGIFridays Restaurant, Pizza Ranch, Thoele Dental, St. John's Prep High School, Riddle's Jewelry, K.B. Photography, and West Metro Auto for being so supportive!
Meghan and Samantha picked their contestant order first and the rest of the contestants were picked out of a hat to chose their contestant number. My name was picked 4th to last! I am very pleased that I got to pick contestant number 21, which means I will be the very last contestant. Below is the contestant order if you are interested.
1) Natalie Davis - Miss Mankato
2) Mary Petersen - Miss Brainerd Lakes
3) Moriah Nelson - Miss Marshall County
4) Brittany Bachmann - Miss Perham
5) Erin Cochran - Miss Winona
6) Elizabeth Scipioni - Miss South Central
7) Allison Lordbock - Miss City of Lakes
8) Emily Kallis - Miss Frazee
9) Meghan Kuznia - Miss Thief River Falls
10) Lauren Johnson - Miss Twin Cities
11) Megan Ehlert - Miss Coon Rapids
12) Kalli Randall - Miss Heart of the Lakes
13) Shanda Arbach - Miss Morris
14) Kimberly Jacobson - Miss North Shore
15) Samantha Phillippe - Miss West Metro
16) Aja Majkrzak - Miss Capital City
17) Tiffany Schulstad-Perterson - Miss Moorhead
18) Landi Dulas - Miss Waseca County Sleigh & Cutter
19) Melissa Paakh - Miss Northwest
20) Rachael Sands - Miss Midwest
21) Bethany Beniek - Miss North Metro
The next order of business was picking roomates during Miss Minnesota Week. I am very excited to say that I will be rooming with Miss Capital City, Aja Majkrzak!
My Roomie
The rest of workshop was filled with short presentations by our sponsors and before we knew it, it was 4:00pm. After getting ready for the Teen Pageant my Mom and I quickly picked up dinner at Chipotle (one of my favorite places to eat) and headed to the Miss Minnesota Outstanding Teen Pageant. Can I say this was the most entertaining pageant I have ever been to! The talents were so unique and impressive if I may say so myself :-)
Aja and I
Miss MN Contestants, Class of 2011
My director
Us Ladies in Blue
Congratulations to the 2nd runner up-Brianna Drevlow, 1st runner up-Bailey Wachholz (my little sister queen), and the New Miss Minnesota's Outstanding Teen-Alexis Houule. All of the contestants were fantastic and should be very proud of themselves for accompishing so much at such a young age!
Newly Crowned Miss Minnesota's Outstanding Teen, Alexis Houule
Bailey Wachholz anounced 1st Runner-Up
The next month of my life will be pretty crazy trying to prepare for Miss Minnesota, finishing up school, studying for the DAT and graduating on May 14th, but I know I can get through it with my positive attitude and family and friends who love and support me.
Before I go I want you all to mark your calendars because I have been given an incredible opportunity to sing the National Anthem for a Men's Gopher Baseball game at Target Field on May 20th. I am very excited and would love to have people come and watch the game with me after :-)
Always,
Bethany Beniek
