Children's Miracle Network Benefit!

On Sunday afternoon (May 23), I hosted a Children's Miracle Network Benefit that I organized at Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano. First of all, a big thank you goes to Craig, Kristen, Annie, Tracy, Stephanie, and Chris from Biaggi's for all their help!!! I really appreciated it!

From noon until 2:00 pm, there was a delicious lunch buffet for guests, and at 2:00, I gave a presentation. I spoke about the Miss Illinois/America Organizations, detailed information about the Children's Miracle Network, and the partnership between the two organizations, as well as my visit to St. John's Children's Hospital and other appearances/events I've been involved in during my reign so far. I showed a short CMN video and incorporated a slideshow of my photos as well.

Kaitlyn Paslay, a CMN 'miracle kid,' then shared her story and journey of the past couple years as she continues to battle leukemia. She talked about how this affected her physically, emotionally, mentally, how this has affected her family and her schooling, and the way that CMN and St. John's Hospital have helped her. It was inspiring to hear how she has overcome obstacles and kept a positive outlook. Kaitlyn is a very outgoing, confidant speaker, and I thought she showed a maturity and level of poise beyond her years. A huge thank you goes to Kaitlyn and her family for being my honored guests. It was a blessing to meet and talk with all of them. They have all gone through so much, and I pray that they will continue to see improvements.

After Kaitlyn spoke, she helped me sell raffle tickets and drew tickets for the prizes, which included Children's Miracle Network merchandise (thank you to Dawn Kuhn from CMN at St. John's for bringing these items!) and gift cards from Biaggi's, Rosati's Pizza, and Moe's Southwest Grill, all here in Bloomington/Normal. Thank you so much to these businesses for contributing generously and showing support for CMN. I also want to thank Wal-Mart Bakery for contributing a cake and Growing Grounds for donating carnations.
THANK YOU to everyone who came to the benefit, donated, or was involved in any way! I was so glad that my family and grandparents were there, as well as family friends, friends from church, and my princess Bella and her grandma! I'm so thankful for the generosity that was shown and that I was able to organize an event that will tangibly/financially help CMN and the kids here in Central Illinois. It's great to see how my work as Miss Capital City is having a real impact--I hope everyone is encouraged to know that individuals CAN make a difference and to find ways to serve others in some way.