Miss Ohio Community Service Day and Bowl-a-Thon!

The Miss Ohio Community Service weekend began with a meet and greet and chat Friday night. Miss Ohio, Marlia Fontaine, offered her insight on our questions which ranged from the job of Miss Ohio to an issue I brought up on this blog a few months ago, use of spray on tanner!

All 24 contestants are in the photo above with Marlia (click to enlarge); I realize it’s not the highest quality and I apologize that I couldn’t reduce some of the nasty redeye. I’ll try to replace it with a better shoot if one becomes available.

Special thanks to Terri and Eric Tinsman for opening their home to us for this event, and to the board members who were also in attendance. P.S., the food was great; there were crown shaped cookies!

Friday night most contestants spent the night in the home they’ll be staying at all of Miss Ohio week, with their Miss Ohio roommate. I am so lucky to have been in the same home for all five years, with a wonderful hostess, her fun husband and two very fat cats! My roommate for this year, Jenna, is fabulous and I know we’re going to have a great time together in July!

[On the ladder top to bottom: Miss Northwestern Ohio, Marisa Minor; Miss Greater Dayton, Becky Minger; Miss Hamilton, Nicole Master; me, Miss Maumee Valley, Abby Bollenbacher; to the right of the ladder: Miss Ohio, Marlia Fontaine and Miss North Coast, Jillian Dansko.]

This morning we met at the United Way and were transported from there to various community organizations. I was so excited to get down and dirty with four other titleholders at a Habitat for Humanity home. My work with my local Habitat office has been in fundraising so it was wonderful to finally experience the job site. The five of us [contestants] and our two chaperones, Dana and Carla painted three bedrooms, four closets, two bathrooms and a hallway in four hours!

Top left: Becky; Right: Marisa and Jillian
Bottom Left: Jillian and I; Right: Nicole
Click to enlarge each.





A couple of the girls and I managed to get paint in our hair, on our faces, our clothes and all over our hands! It’s not that I’m an inexperienced painter, believe me, I’m not, I just can’t do it neatly!

Other contestants engaged in cleaner community service, singing to the elderly, helping with a tea party and interacting with kids at a youth facility. While none of my fellow blogging contestants have yet updated their sites about today, I’m sure they will do so in time. Check them out to learn what organization they helped with and possibly see more pictures:

Mary's Blog
Roberta's Blog
Elyse's Blog

Next we were off to Park Lanes for the second annual Miss Ohio Bowl-a-Thon. While “Team BOWLenbacher” didn’t have t-shirts, we did have a banner and a really great time!

I had a blast bowling next to Becky Minger and her family. We each got turkeys! (Meaning three strikes in a row.) While we didn’t get them at the same time, we attributed our success to being fellow BOWLING Green Falcons!

Lots of other fun photos were taken, as well as a group photo at the bowling alley, however, they were taken on my mom’s new camera and thus, I don’t have them right now. My brothers, dad and I chipped in to finally get her up to speed with a digital camera for Mother's Day. I proceeded to use it in front of her at the alley until she finally noticed it to be different than mine and ask about it… I said, oh, it’s yours! It was a priceless moment and she loves her new toy!

Thanks to the United Way, Park Lanes, all the other sponsors, hostesses and chaperones, board members, volunteers and especially my bowling team! It was a great weekend.