My Cinderella Moment

                                                         Royalty Dinner & Dance                                                                          Friday August 14th, 2015 at the Merritt Desert Inn 

So after our Speeches everyone including my fellow candidates, the reigning BC ambassadors, visiting royalty, community co-ordinators family and friends all headed  to the Merritt Desert Inn for a dinner and small dance. 

As I mentioned in the previous Blog my parents had to head home to Osoyoos right after the speech presentations so my mom could be at work by 7 am the next morning. I was then one of two candidates who had no family there to drive me to and from dinner. 

So enter my pageant bestie shayla who lives in Merritt and became like my has-been sister who was able to drive me to and from dinner. As well as come to the Saturday luncheon to support me. 


Dinner was fabulous and I spent the evening sitting beside the Osoyoos royalty and a large group of the other visiting royalty. 

During dinner I also handed out the gifts I had brought for my fellow candidates and the reigning BC Ambassador Team. Which were held in the watermark beach resort bags that had been sitting under my table. Now I chose to hand them out on Friday and thus alter my table (slightly) as that way people could be able to pack them up that night and it would mean one less thing for me to think about on Saturday. 

I put together everyone's gift by hand dividing up things equally and putting thought into each person. Inside their gift bag from Watermark Beach Resort  included a Pen & Brochure from the resort. I also included Old Osoyoos town Coins from 1977 donated by Osoyoos Town Council member Mike Campol  I also included several Avon Makeup Samples all donated by the local Avon lady Lisa Ondejko who runs In Touch Wellness in Osoyoos. I myself donated a full size container of my home made Sunscreen, Lemon Lip Balm and a Mary Kay Cleanser & Moisturizer sample as I am a Mary-Kay Rep. For Ethan I included a small gift donated by the Osoyoos Duty Free since I didn't include any makeup samples for him!

At one point during dinner there was afunny yet awkward moment when the royalty were having a cake eating contest. When i proceeded to ask if I could record people eating literally saying "can I record you eating?" Which caused a small laugh riot and delay in the contest. However once it stated the winner managed to eat his cake in 30 seconds! 

Shortly after the dance started and Shayla and I were stoked and the first ones out on the dance floor. It had been years (since 2010) when I had last been at a royalty dance. And I was eager to get the dance party started. Alas the last song I could stay for was the traditional royalty song which is Saturday Night by Whigfield  and everyone got up to do the Royalty Dance. This song has played at every ball/Dance/Pageant for as long as anyone can remember. In fact many people have the tradition of the reigning royalty teaching it to the new candidates before they take on their new titles.

Eventually I had to be like Cinderella and leave the ball in order to make it back to the hotel by my 11 p.m curfew. But not before I signed the guest book which basically hasn't been signed since 1013. 

Now the question is did Cinderella make it back home before the stroke of midnight (ahem 11 p.m)that is the question...

Friday Night Speech Presentations

2015 British Columbia Ambassador Speech Night ~ August 14th, 2015

After having Dinner with the judges we had a bit of down time in the Dressing room before people started arriving and we went out into the Lobby to visit everyone! The 2015 Osoyoos Royalty Team gave me lots of hugs and presented me with a Bouquet of Flowers & A Vase as well as warm wishes before I went on stage. 

I also ran into Marji Basso who was involved in the 2015 V-Day Oliver/Osoyoos Spring Production, having been the director. So she was 

one of the first people to support me 

once I had announced my intentions 

so it was a joy to see her once more 

towards the end of my journey. 

Another person who came out to Support me was Shayla who was a former Merritt Ambassador in 2009 and was one of my best friends during my reign as Osoyoos Princess. Since I've been attending the BC Ambassador Pageant since my time as an Osoyoos Princess starting in August of 2008, I had the pleasure of watching Shayla as a candidate when she ran in 2012. 

I also got to see Bill Greer a fellow member of the South Okanagan Toastmasters Club #7791 who was also a club member during my previous toastmaster experience as an Osoyoos Royalty Candidate in 2008. He and his wife Ruby made the Trip out to Merritt to support myself as well as the other candidates! 

I also briefly got to see my parents and when I say briefly I meant it. As my family was traveling back to Osoyoos right after our speeches were over, as my mom had to work at 7 a.m the next morning! So Unfortunately they were unable to attend the Dinner & dance that was to follow the Speeches. 

However I was thrilled they could even make it to the event and were able to get home safely having had to travel through the Forest Fire zone! 

After greeting everyone it came time to head back into the Dressing room for a few last minute makeup touch ups before heading out onto the stage for presenting the first of our two Speeches, which were the speeches on the topic of our choosing.

In all honesty I wasn't really nervous for the speech presentation. In all honesty I was vastly more anxious during our speech Rehearsals the day before.

 I knew that I had personally had many supporters in the crowd who were there to lend me their unspoken support from the audience. I also kept the mentality that the crowd in general was supporting me and wanted to see me to excel.

I feel like if you go into any situation where you performing in front of any kind of public crowd whether you are Speaking, Acting, Singing, dancing, performing, or even just posing [as a model] it is best to go into it with a positive mentality & perspective on your audience whoever they might be. So I like to maintain the positive mentality of everyone making up the audience is only there to SUPPORT me than it helps me feel more at ease personally regardless of whether I'm acting, speaking, singing, dancing or even Rapping [Throwback to playing Sister Amnesia last fall in South Okanagan Amateurs Production of Nunset Boulevard.]

I felt even more at ease after I had presented my speech entitled Acting through the ages it was time for a short intermission [me being number 9 & Lucky Last] During which we were once again allowed to mingle with the crowd before heading backstage once more to put on our community costumes.

During the intermission I was able to talk to people about how I did which helped me feel even better about presenting my second & final Speech. I was also able to get some last minute advice from Bill Greer who was there representing the South Okanagan Toastmasters Club #7791 

After the intermission ended and I was dressed and ready to go in my Community costume I was positively GIDDY backstage. I was even Dancing around in my gorgeous blue metalic floor length and very swishy/swirly dress [Representing Osoyoos Lake] with bright yellow Shirt & Necklace adding to my cheerful disposition with my Sage Satin Belt tying in all of that which represents Osoyoos to me, the water, the sun & the unique landscape surrounding our town.

Which was able to really pump me up before going on stage where I feel like I totally rocked my Community Speech! It also helped that I was able to practice my speech over and over and OVER again the green room as it became more empty. I was not the only one using the empty space to hurriedly practice before it was time to go on stage. Picture below is Rachael in her community costume & Mary Margaret or should I say Stin-qua the legendary Cowichan Lake Water Monster.  

Lastly I don't have any videos of my choice speech which I called Acting through the ages but here is one of the practice recordings of my Osoyoos Community Speech that I recorded and Uploaded onto YouTube

Backstage Shenanigans on Friday August 14th

Rehearsals before our Speech Presentations on Friday August 14th, 2015

Everyone awoke early and eager for the first day of our official pageant weekend. Which included completing a variety of judged portions of the competition and two public events. Upon arriving at the Merritt Civic Centre we headed off to another fabulous breakfast prepared by Anna Brown and her team. 

Before heading off to the stage for a quick rehearsal of what would happen on Saturday night including quick pageant walks, answering hilariously made up impromptu questions before going over what the award portion would look like. This passed by rather quickly which left us a lot of time to practice speeches as well as do another mini-practice session of presenting our Community Table Displays to the Reigning British Columbia Ambassadors. This was in preparation of the Community Table judging which was happening on Friday Afternoon. 

After another fabulous home cooked style Lunch, everyone headed off to the Dressing Room to start preparing for our busy judged day. Everyone was incredibly lucky that our fellow candidate Rachael Tebulte from Castlegar helped out with everyone's hair for the day. I received so many compliments on my hair that night and more than one person thought it was professionally done! 

Pretty soon it was time for the start of the individual judging sessions of everyone's Community Table Presentations. We were taken into the room and had between 10-15 minutes with the judges to describe our Community tables and showcase the very best of our towns or cities. As once again I was last I anxiously awaited my turn going from doing my makeup to studying the visitors guides from my community. 

As  I was last I started to notice how the time was starting to dwindle and before I knew it there was barely any time left before our scheduled dinner with the judges. When I feel like I'm late or losing time I start to get incredibly anxious. So this was one instance where being last worked against me as I had time to turn into a giant stress ball. It also didn't help when it was finally down to the girl ahead of me and myself waiting to go and they told everyone to go eat Dinner! So I will admit that I knew that I hadn't done so well with my community presentation as I had hoped. However I didn't let it phase me and instead headed into Dinner without giving it much thought. I am however still very proud of my Table Presentation and my how I showcased Osoyoos over all. 

Hotel Room Party BC Ambassador Style

During dinner we sort of practiced how to eat as the following day on Friday we would all be eating with the judges. After yet another scrumptious meal cooked by Anna and her team we Reuther to the hotel before you guessed it our daily trip to Walmart! Which coincidentally was also our final trip to Walmart where I acyl lute bout stuff including makeup primer for my face yo and thank you cards. 

After Walmart we headed over to the dairy queen to take part in Miracle treat day where the British Columbia ambassador program paid for everyone's blizzards. I was thrilled at how packed the Merritt Dairy Queen was and thoroughly enjoyed my delicious blizzard. 


Once we got back to the hotel after a little while of chill time all of the 2015 British Columbia Ambassador Candidates  were invited to a Hotel Room party hosted by the 2014 BC ambassador team. We were crowned with Barbie party crowns and given goody bags and balloon animals!  Every one came out to the party minus Coleen and Teresa who decided to go to bed early. 

After our little group hang out most of us headed upstairs to play Clue while the rest went to their rooms to practice speeches. 

Since there were so many of us we split into teams. I was paired up with navigation and we were both kinda confused and wound up sitting beside the two winners who were Mary from Lake Cowichan and Tess from Kamloops. 



Afterwards we all returned back to our rooms where I was confronted by the only questionable person throughout my entire week in Merritt. This person had obviously had a but too much fun as she poked fun of my crown and used some choice words whilst calling me a liar about our pageant being real anyway I made sure our doors were locked and the curtain closed. Am felt bad for the BC ambassadors who had to pass her by as well. 



Anyway once I got into my room in set about writing what seemed like endless thank you cards. As I didn't want to have to do them on Friday night well trying to pack and sleep. So I did them all on Thursday. Which worked out well as I was able to add them to the gifts I was handing out yo people the next day. 

By the way enjoy this vlog of me demonstrating one of my favorite things to do in the hotel room at the Ramada in Merritt 

A Day full of Rehearsals and Fire Alarms

Today was a full day of rehearsals as we prepared for our speech presentations for the following say Friday August 14. 

Our second home well in Merritt was the  Merritt Leisure centre which is also known as the Merritt Leisure Centre and basically the community centre. So it was very much a shared space between us and the people of Merritt. However the stage area & our green room were always locked from the public. One of my all time favorite things to do was whistle in the empty room with the stage. This helped me de-stress and prepare for the day. So I would typically sneak in when it was still empty right after breakfast.
For part of our speech rehearsals it was a closed stage with our personal choice speeches only being done in front of Teresa. Meanwhile everyone was given an opportunity to practice with Colleen off stage. This is the day the nerves got the better of me especially when I learned my sleeves were over time. 
I spent much of the time with my head but tied in my lap finding quiet places to go over it I my head. 

Upon getting into the stage area I saw how gorgeous it was looking and that made me feel a bit more at ease. 
However after I said it once on stage I was fine after that and all nerves disappear which was good as I had the afternoon for my community speech rehearsal. 

Now around Mid-Morning and just before lunch, the fire alarm started to go off and everyone had to evacuate the building. Fear Not there was no fire!!! Remember how I mentioned the that the Merritt Civic centre was a shared community space? Well one of the children attending the day camp set off the fire alarm. So we had to wait for the fire department to arrive and shut off the alarms before we could re-enter the building and eat lunch!!! 

Around lunch time the 2014 British Columbia Ambassador team arrived and Julie from Oliver made us specially made cupcakes that were decorated in intricate dogwood flowers she made by hand. 

After lunch and everyone was in high spirits it was back to work and everyone changed into their community costumes.
which was my favorite speech a as I loved my outfit.  

After that we all settled into the seats as we watched and supported each other throughout the speeches. I will admit this is the only time i heard anyone's speeches minus the girl right before me throughout the pageant. I decided i didn't want to hear anything back stage during the  judged presentations and stayed in the green room throughout nearly every speech... 

so this was basically the only time i heard everyone speak in general and frankly i am happy i did it that way. This way i wasn't in the mind set of comparing myself to my fellow candidates or analyzing b their speeches in my head. 



After our giant group rehearsals we had the rest of the afternoon to do our speeches a few more times on stage with the mic phones casually and out of order. This time around we did our speeches in font of the BC ambassadors! After a day full of using our voices it was time for dinner which signals the start of a new part/blog

On The Second Night in Merritt...We had a pizza party

So after a rather stressful day it was finally time to just relax. We enjoyed another fabulous home cooked meal by Anna and her team where we continued to bond ad a group including the start of more than one private joke including more than person managing to break plastic forks. 

After dinner we headed back to the hotel before heading on our daily trip too Walmart. Afterwards everyone minus my roomier and i went swimming. I missed out because I was too slow to get ready to go after doing social media updates. However my fellow candidates invited us to a late night pizza party!

During which time we learned about the famous Spider Man in Merritt who calls himself the Slightly Below Average SpiderBuchan to learn more about this mysterious Merritt hero check him out on Facebook.  We even invited him to our pageant but unfortunately he had other plans. 

We discovered him whilst watching Shaw TV Merritt on the off chance of seeing our interviews. I once again really enjoyed hanging out with everyone and getting to know people.

I apparently had so much fun I promptly forgot my shoes In someone else's room lol which caused some confusion in the morning.