My Life Of Russell County

The Iowa State Fair Queen is, in my opinion, one of the most influential women for the State of Iowa. She serves her state proudly and represents the youth in a way nobody else can! The State Fair Queen is the heart and soul of Iowa, and proves to be an outstanding role model for the youth and all communities. By being selected as my county’s Fair Queen, I am beyond grateful to be able to be in the running for the 2015 State Fair Queen. I adore being there for others and lending my hands wherever I go. I am constantly on the go as traveling is a love of mine, as well as public speaking. In the future, I plan on going into Communications with the intentions to help others and being someone they see as someone to go to. The Iowa State Fair is a

The opinion that beauty pageants are all fun and games is a very dangerous one to have. The lives of participating children are never the same because of the long term emotional and psychological effects that are brought on by early

Walking into the sunlit barn hallway, the musky scent of hay and horse fur overwhelms my senses. I see a chestnut-colored horse stick his head over the wooden stall door to greet me. As I look around, I notice other volunteers getting horses saddled up and ready for the next lesson. Turning around I smile at a young student entering with her mom, ecstatic at the prospect of being able to ride a horse despite being in a wheelchair. Heartland Equine Therapeutic Riding Academy, located in Gretna, makes dreams possible. People of all ages have the opportunity to learn how to ride a horse despite their physical or mental disabilities. After volunteering at HETRA for five years, the organization has made significant impacts on my personality, interests, and maturity.

This event happens once a year and takes place at our high school stadium. Special needs kids come from all around my community to compete in events that best suit their physical or intellectual disabilities. It is truly astounding to see a whole community come together to support these kids. At this past year's Olympics I volunteered as a peer buddy and my responsibilities included walking my buddy, Luke, to his different events and making sure he was having a good time. Luke won first place in the ball throw and second place in the 100 meter dash. I loved seeing how happy he was when he was handed his ribbons and I was so fortunate to have been able to spend the day with

I grew up in a city named Colorado City, TX – the city is located in Central West Texas. I had a really good friend, that I became best friends with, named Daniel. We went riding our bikes everywhere around this little town, scraping our knees on concrete and crashing our bikes on practically everything (since there was practically nothing to do in this town – this was before the 3M Palace Theatre was reopened).

Sioux County Iowa isn’t so different from any other rural county in the Midwest. We have rich and poor towns, public and private schools, good and bad police officers, and plenty of rowdy teenagers. The Midwest however is a very unique place to live. I lived in the country, about ten minutes outside of Orange City, Iowa. One summer Wednesday night at about 9:00p.m., after I had just gotten back home from work, I received a text message from my friend Jon, “Get the truck ready. Be at your house in 10”. I sighed. I knew that meant we were up to no good. I’m not sure what really bothered me, the fact that Jon was expecting me to drop all of my plans to go on another escapade, or the fact that we both knew I didn’t have any plans.

More than 20 years ago, an ordinary middle-aged man working in the insurance industry, getting ready to retire from his job, was shopping at his local grocery store. In the grocery store parking lot, an unlikely encounter with a girl named Stacy changed his life. Stacy had cerebral palsy, making her unable to talk or hear. That's when Swimmer got the idea, "what might happen if I put her on a horse?" Stacey soon later visited Swimmer at his farm in outside Charlotte, North Carolina, where Stacy was able to ride a pony for the first time. "She lit up like a candle," said Swimmer, and that's when I knew what I wanted to do. Today Swimmer has helped over 800 kids with disabilities through his equine-assisted therapy program from his organization

I was privileged to be able to attend several different club meetings across the state as well as all five District Conventions. It was also very exciting to be able to participate in the chartering ceremony for our newest club in the state – the Eupora Juniorettes – in District 3 in May. In addition to these, I attended and participated in our State Convention that was hosted by District 3 in Tupelo in April and the GFWC International Convention in Memphis in June.

Nolanville ,Texas was where it all began. I was about fifteen or so my sisters and I were walking to the buss stop . The big brother Iam trying to make sure my sisters are safe. I told my sister to get off to the side of the road . It was early in the morning around six to seven am. The typical time for school to start around . I have a really big family to be exact I have five sisters and myself which is the only boy being the second oldest the buss stop was about about a mile or so not very far from my house on the corner of the street a black car sped through the street as I was on the right hand my sister sarah the middle child started to cross the road as I saw the saw went to go yell the car hits her projecting into the air the car was

It was 2:30 school just got out me and Tayler where going to leave as I realis I forgot my book in the classroom so we ran back to the classroom and when we got there was a mysterious door in the back of the classroom. There were no teachers in site so I decided to go over to the door and open it. There was a very bright light coming from the door. Tayler and I took one step in the door and then it slam shut behind us. We took a few more step closer to the light. But now we were in some other town named Brownard County, Florida. I saw the sign that said the name of the town.

With the outstanding support of the Shaw Centre and our wonderful event partners, the evening promises to be spectacular. Proceeds raised from this event will help support children and youth with physical disabilities and their families.

On the near side of the cove, you begin to climb again, up a twisting, turning road, which leads to the top of the long ridge that splits Tennessee and echoes the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, from which I had left,.. Crossville being atop that geographical feature. The ridge is called Walden's Ridge, and I grew up on top of it, on the southern end of Rhea County, which is the county where I now reside.

To be honest, participating in a beauty pageant was never where I would have pictured myself, but when my step-sister's best friend needed to recruit 10 potential delegates in order to compete internationally & friends & family learned I was recruited they displayed

"Keep your eyes on the prize" , this quote is what I try to live my life by. Growing up in a small county like Grayson County is hard to live by such quote. Living in the county with the highest teenage pregnancy rate within all the counties of Kentucky, not only makes the residents look bad but makes the student body look terrible. Also having to attend a school where other students think it is okay to bully other students. I, personally have had a close friend to go through such things in her high school career. Another problem about growing up in a small county is, drugs. I can honestly say that over half of the class I will be graduating with in 2016, has done or is currently doing drugs. I hate seeing the people that I went to elementary

As Co-Founder of the Children's Business Fair, I'm interested in your experience and how we can serve you better.