Taste of Eden Prairie Mardi Gras Fundraiser for Eden Prairie Schools

February 21st at 6pm Vikings Clubhouse, Eden Prairie. I met many leaders in our community today like City Council members Brad Aho and Jennifer Loon,as well as Eden Prairie School Superintendant, Melissa Krull.
The Lions Club was out in full force as well as my boss, Mark from Shop NBC! I helped announce the raffle winner and bid on a few silent auction items. I lost the adorable doll, but won the weekend getaway at a beautiful home on Lake Minnetonka! I had a lot of fun with the staff of Jimmy John's, home of the best sandwhiches and visited with my favorite local grocer, Kowalski's!

Hands on Twin Cities February 21 at the Mall of America

Today more than 100 local non profits were seeking volunteers to "Be the Change" in our community. I helped recruit many new mentors at the Kinship of Greater Minneapolis Booth today as a part of Hands on Twin Cities Volunteer Expo and even met Miss Twin Cities America who is very beautiful and talented! (she has sung at my pageant for several years) If you are down about the economy, giving your time and talent to others is a sure cure to take your mind off your problems for a while and see all of the blessings you have received.

Go to www.Kinship.org to learn more about mentoring a child in your community.

Girl Scouts Cookie Creations Event PSA and TV Commercial shoot

February 13th I shot the radio Public Service Announcement (PSA) in Rochester, MN and went to Channel 6 to shoot the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valley's TV spot to be run locally, promoting their upcoming Fundraiser, Cookie Creations. An innovative event where Chefs from the top restaurants in Rochester will create dishes to be judged by a celebrity panel (yes, I'm excited to taste the dishes and will be judging!), with all appetizers, entrees, desserts and drinks being made using one of their famous Girl Scout Cookie flavors! The winning recipe will be featured locally and a recipe book from all of the recipes will be available for $20 as a part of their fundraiser. If you live near Rochester, please join us on March 25th at 5:30pm-8:30pm. You'll also be able to buy Girl Scout Cookies at the event! If you want to find out where to buy them near you, email cookies@girlscoutsrv.org to be connected with troops near you through March 30th.

February 13th, Music Educators Midwestern Clinic

Today was lucky Friday and a successful day garnering signatures for the National Association of Music Educators petition to keep music education in our schools. I helped represent the Advocacy booth for the Minnesota Music Educators Association at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It was fun to meet so many talented students, educators and musical instruments.

My best memories as a little girl have been singing, listening to my dad sing and seeing musicals like "Annie" and "Chorus Line". What would our world be like without music? Please sign MENC's petition here:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/MrsMNMENC/

One teacher says it best in this excerpt:

"As I watched the inauguration yesterday, I was struck by something in addition to the historical significance of the event. When it comes to the highest degree of ceremony in our land, we turn to that which is often the first to be on the chopping block in tough financial times: the arts. There was singing, poetry, an ensemble of some of the most talented and accomplished instrumental solo artists in the world, discussion of the particular painting featured at the luncheon, grand marches played by a band. Because great societies are often measured by their progress in the arts, we seem to understand intrinsically that these things belong, yet we are often unwilling as a society to preserve them in our education system. For every artist who blessed the nation with their gift yesterday, there was someone who had initially recognized their talent, nurtured it, guided its technical preparation, encouraged its development. Someone introduced Yo-Yo Ma to the cello, and put Aretha Franklin on a stage. These things do not just happen by accident.

The next time you hear the flippant suggestion to cut the arts out of the schools because it's "nice, but not necessary," imagine yesterday without the arts… a walk to a podium, an oath, a speech, a walk to whatever comes next… no parades, no balls. Imagine the band members who played "Hail to the Chief," told in middle school that music would not be offered in their school any more. Imagine if Itzhak Perlman never held a violin. Imagine the featured choir given over to the directorship of someone with no vocal training because the chorus position was cut. These things are happening every day, and someday we may be faced with a quickie courthouse ceremony rather than royal pomp and circumstance befitting a presidential inauguration. Think about it."

Jennifer Erickson
Orange County Public School Teacher

Minneapolis VA Medical Center National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans

Friday, February 13, 2009 I went to the Medical Center to express my honor and appreciation to hosptitalized veterans in MN. We are all privileged to live in this nation and we all have a special place in our hearts for these defenders of freedom.

I met many veterans from World War 2, Vietnam and most recently from Iraq. The one soldier who really made an impact on me was Dan, a young soldier in his 20's who was headed to surgery within the next few weeks whose injury impaired his mental capacities to some extent but his emotional side was in tact. He mentioned looking forward to going back home after the surgery and even made jokes about his short term memory that he'll always feel like he's going to a newly renovated home since he won't remember what it was like before! Many of these soldiers will be here indefinitely but they all appreciated having visitors bringing Valentine's cards and showing they care by coming to visit them. Please consider a trip to visit these Veterans.

34th Red Bull Infantry Division Departure Ceremony February 10th 4-8:30pm

The most humbling experience for me has been attending the departure ceremony for our troops from Minnesota and Wisconsin heading to Iraq for a year---3700 men and women are leaving to serve our country held at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota. Governor Tim Pawlenty, The Commander in Chief gave a wonderful speech to the troops thanking them for their service and many senators and local political representatives were in attendance.

The 34th Red Bull Infantry Division is known as the Sandstorm Division and was mobilized to Europe at the conclusion of World War I. They will operate in 8 of Iraq's 18 provinces, and will have a direct partnership with more than 40,000 Iraqi Security Forces.

It was an amazing turnout of family and friends and local restaurants rallied together to make dinner for 6,000 Soldiers and their family members-This is the largest single seating meal in the history of the River Centre complex.

I started at the far corner of the room I was seated in and went to each table to shake the hand of each soldier and thank them personally for their service. After many pictures with soldiers, I left feeling a deeper sense of respect and understanding of the type of men who protect our freedom and put our country before their families and themselves.

The picture on the top features one of the most highly decorated generals in the country--- a 4 star general, below that are the Wisconsin Soldiers and bottom is the Patriot Guards who were there to honor our Soldiers.

Have a Heart at Nicollett Pavillion, Feb. 7th 9:30pm

After photo ops with visitors at the Swarm game, I headed over to The Have a Heart Benefit for Camp Odayin at the Nicollet Island Pavilion, a camp for children with heart disease supervised by medical professionals to help give a worry free environment for these children. I helped with their raffle and gave the visitors a photo op. I also met the Minnesota Rollergirls who were manning the minnow races---what a unique group of gals! They've invited me to an upcoming game so I'm looking forward to seeing what this altruistic group of girls can do in the rink!

Honored as an Unsung Hero at the MN Swarm Game, Feb. 7th 7pm

The Minnesota Swarm Lacrosse Team honored me and Tyiteana for our mentoring partnership and for my work promoting Mentoring in Minnesota. It was an exciting game against Colorado--I was impressed with the show, the announcer and the fun music that interjected the fast movement and scoring of the game!

Tyiteana and I went out onto the field before the game and were given balls to lay down for the captain of each team to pick up with their stick. Tyiteana loved being featured on their huge screen. Her mother seemed very proud. Tami Krause, heading to Mrs. MN International next month, was the choreographer for the MN Swarm Cheerleaders and looked so beautiful!

Pay It Forward Breast Cancer Fundraiser, February 6th

I was a celebrity dealer at the 4th Annual Casino Night Fundraiser hosted by Rena Sarigianopoulos from KARE 11. Much money was raised and tons of fun for the gamblers of the night. Over 600 people were in Medina to support Michelle Morey, the creator of this event and a breast cancer survivor herself.

Since most women with breast cancer need to stop working to focus on getting better and often have financial difficulty with the most basic of necessities like utilities and co-pays, Michelle Morey has created this annual fundraiser to help women to focus on their health.

I was dealing Black jack table and thank goodness Brad, my dealer was there to help teach me how to deal!

I sat at the fun table with all of the fabulous 107.1 FM Talk radio hosts. My favs were Lori and Julia of course, who are a hoot! Miss MN International, Tina Rosenthal and Miss MN America, Angie McDermott were both dealers and looked stunning tonight!

January 24th, St. Paul Winter Carnival and Big Brothers Big Sisters

Tonight I volunteered at the Big Brother Big Sisters booth and watched an interesting contest of the bouncing girl. 8 men hold onto a trampoline by hand and a petite girl jumps up and does the splits and lands. I've never heard of it but there were many girls there competing to be the next bouncer! She will then hold the title for 3 years and jump in all the upcoming parades her group attends.

I also saw some amazing ice sculptures, but the wild horses jumping was the winner and is pictured here. I did have to sit on the throne, I thought it was appropo!