What an amazing evening! I was honored to speak to the wonderfully talented International Youth who have spent the last week together at the Iowa 4-H campgrounds. There were youth from Finland, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Turkey, India, Italy, Latvia, Israel & Poland, as well as a few from Iowa. I had the most fun just listening to them talk, with all the different accents! The Lions Club International have sponsored each of these youths in an exchange program that allows them to stay with a host family here in Iowa for a couple weeks. I could tell they all had become very close and really enjoyed their stay. I truly enjoyed the wonderful talent show they put on for us and was amazed at some of the talent within this small group! I have already talked with the Lions Club about being a camp volunteer next year! I could tell in the 
short amount of time that I spent with these youth that they were a lot of fun and very responsible & respectful! It was so refreshing to see and be a part of. I hope that, even though we did not get many chances to talk at great length, that these international youth will keep in touch and let me know how they are doing! I will be receiving a DVD of the entire evening we had together, as well as footage of their week at camp. You can just see from the pictures what a fun bunch they were and how welcoming they were of me into their group! I felt like I was 18 again! In fact, I took the challenge of learning a German jump style dance during the talent show! I was right up there with all the teenagers, jumping and kicking, and having a blast!! The culmination of the show was when the young man from Finland got up and told us (the audience) a little about each of the "campers". It was such a great way to learn a little about each of them, even though we didn't get to spend the week with them! He had such wonderful, positive things to say about everybody, and he really built every body up! We don't hear or see enough of this in our soc
iety today and it was very refreshing!!I was very pleased with the response to my presentation on the Early Warning Signs of an Abusive Relationship. I hope that I made an impression on the youth, as well as the adults, in the audience. I did get a lot of positive feedback from the Lions Club governors & leaders. I hope that I will have many more opportunities for speaking engagements through this great organization. I may just end up becoming a Lion myself! I will include a copy of my speech here for you to read. I did adlib a bit, so this is not word for word what I said, but it is very close. I had a brief introduction before I began.
~Nine years ago, I started competing in pageants as a challenge for myself to overcome my shyness, once and for all! Through out the years I have had many opportunities to speak out on my platform & support many worthy causes, forcing me to step outside my comfort zone. It has become such a habit to be out of my comfort zone now, that I am uncomfortable with what used to be my comfort zone! I am grateful for the opportunities that pageants have given me and I hope that on September 2nd I will be able to capture the crown of Mrs. America and give Iowa the bragging rights of calling this the home & heart of Mrs. America! Sometimes I wonder how a scrawny, shy farm girl grew up to be one of the women I used to admire during the Miss America pageants on TV! As a wife and mother of 4, I never dreamed that I would get the chance, or find the time, to pursue my passion of helping others, all the while wearing a crown that represents all the married women in this country. It is with the help of God and my own perseverance that it is a reality!
By all rights, I should not be standing here this evening. And let me tell you why I say that. As a 16 year old I found myself in an abusive dating relationship. As is the nature of such situations, it had escalated to a frightening scenario when I tried to leave the relationship. In my naivety I thought I could just walk away & that would be the end of it. But that was not the case. I found myself staring down the muzzle of a gun. By the grace of God, someone pulled up to my, then boyfriend’s house & he quickly put the gun away, giving me the chance to escape. Lucky for me he never pursued me & I never saw him again.
As many as 1 in 3 teens experience abuse of some kind in a romantic relationship, whether it is physical, emotional or verbal. It starts out innocent enough and in some cases, it seems to be very flattering when someone wants to spend every minute with you. Over time, this can turn into a control issue and you find yourself cut off from your friends and family. And you realize that you no longer do any of the things you used to enjoy because you spend every waking moment with this person. Then, one day they make a comment in front of your friends that embarrasses or hurts you. From that point, things can very quickly escalate to physical abuse. This is just one example of some of the early warning signs of a potentially abusive relationship and should not be ignored. Domestic violence does not discriminate. It affects all races, religions, cultures, genders & ages. My goal is to educate our youth on the early warning signs of an abusive relationship & give them the resources they need, if they should find themselves in this situation. As Mrs. Iowa America I hope that I can prevent at least one person from experiencing what I did and that is why I promote & support the Liz Claiborne’s “Love Is Not Abuse” campaign and their partner youth organization, “Break the Cycle”. I strongly believe that both organizations can make a difference & I hope that my voice will be a little stronger and a little louder than most, to bring awareness to these worthy organizations! As a community we need to Engage, Educate, & Empower our youth, teachers and community leaders. As they say, Knowledge is Power!
Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak with you this evening and I will finish by saying, “Enjoy the show!”~
If you know of any club, group, organization, etc., or even you personally, that would be interested in having me come speak at their meetings, please feel free to contact me at MrsIowaAmerica@yahoo.com! I am always looking for opportunities to get the word out and to meeting people all around Iowa!
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