Political clout

Hmmm did i spell clout correctly?

I like to believe that most people who run for office are doing so because they want to make positive changes in our government and to help people.

When I run I promote the fact that I am one of the people and I don't forget where I come from.  I don't make a lot of money for being a politician or holding in office.   And i am not a rich person to begin.

I am involved because I believe that one person can make a difference and I try to be that person.  I also believe that many people just  complain about what is going on around them but never take action.

I say stop complaining and run for an office where you want change or get involved with programs or governmental groups or the political party that you back and voice your opinions or support a person who does.

What does this all have to do with clout?  I believe many politicians go into the business for the right reasons but are often corrupted by their power or contacts or by gaining such influences.  There are definitely some positions where term limits should be instilled. 

I feel that as a libertyville township trustee we do not wield (sp?) that kind of power.  We are there to work with the supervisor, to positively represent our township and what we seek to accomplish.

What do you think?

Dreamgirls IL workshop

Today we went to the IL dreamgirls worshop at the marriott in Schaumburg.
we learned about the pageant, what it will cost and what events you need to enter to be eligible to win certain crowns. we also met the new IL director Marleena, she is also director of Ohio and IN.

they dont double crown.

for the basic fee $350 you can be a eligible for the division title. Plus you have to pay ad page fee of $100.

then you can pay for 3 optionals and then you are up for 3 supreme titles plus an overall high point title. the supremes with optional are $75 each. they are photogenic, fashion modeling and casual wear modeling.

then there are is one other optional, talent @ $75and then two other optional supreme titles, supreme beauty and supreme spokesmodel which are $50 each.

by attending the workshop today we received a $100 discount. a nice deal because this is an expensive state pageant, as far as i can tell. but if you win the basic fee for nationals is paid by the director to go to St. Louis.

the pageant is March 16-18, 2012, this year. should be fun. Sheridan will be a preteen for state, ages 10-12 based on birthday as of Jan. 1, 2012, but she will be a Jr. teen for nationals, age 11-12, based on birthday jan 1, 2012

ABP Halloween Spooktacular

Today was a great day for Sheridan competing.
She was fortunate to compete with her friends Sam and Alyia and our friend Amy was there for support as well as Sam and her friends mom Jen.

This was a fun day. Started at 8 for registration, scheduled to start at 9, started about 9-915

First was Beauty, Gown, 2nd was Casual outfit modeling, after that talent and last was modeling halloween costume. then we had a lunch break and a nice party that consisted of "mummy" wrapping, limbo and eating a "pie" of pudding with whipped cream and finding five gummy worms, of course no hands could be used and if you found other candy, not a worm, you had to eat it. it was messy, icky and pretty gross, lol.

then was crowning, Sheridan did amazing. She won the highest title on the natural side, you could do natural or glitz... we did natural... she won Natural Ultimate Supreme, Overall Talent, Overall Naturally Fab runway model, overall Natural Cover Model, overall natural portfolio, 1st runner up composite and 1st runner up natural halloween model (although she tied for this one b/c she had a perfect score) - not sure how the tie was broken.

Overall a great day and lots of fun and close to home at the doubletree mundelein, we like that, next door.
Our friends competed too and Sam won Sr. grand supreme, natural and Alyia won Jr. Grand supreme Natural. they wre great!!

sheridan came home with a nice plaque and a cool spider trophy.

community service and volunteering and pageants

many people ask what is so great about pageants, all they are are beauty contests... well that is not true.

many of the pageant programs are mentoring programs, younger girls have older ones to look up to, and learn from.

in the Miss America/Miss IL system the girls in the Miss and Teen division require a platform and the preteens have a community service or platform.
Also with the Miss IL system one of the main community programs for which they fundraise is the Children's Miracle Network. All Miss contestants are required to fundraise for that program.

Sheridan's platform this year was fundraising for the food pantry. We like to go to the local church every third Saturday of the month and sort the food and hand it out. this is an outside program/pantry and no matter the weather we are out there. we also donate to the LIbertyville Township pantry as well as the Beth Am synogogue pantry where we participate yearly in the Stamp Out Hunger event in the fall. we sponsor queens to join us with NISP every year for that one.

The nice thing about the pageant systems, weather the Miss IL system or feeder pageant systems or the NISP, Northern Illinois Scholarship Program, or American Coed, NAM or many others, the girls all give back by donating time to community service events. The need to help out is engrained with these girls at a young age and they do it generously and give back often and have fun while helping others.

Sheridan has done a Lyme diseas walk, many cancer walks, whether walking around and having gathered/raised money, or volunteering handing out Gatorade for a marathon or handing out food at a pantry.

So therefore, another reason to be in pageants is to learn the community service part of volunteering.

Princesses are Almost Perfect Event with Miss IL and Preteen Miss Chicago

Today Sheridan was lucky enough to spend an hour with Miss IL Hannah Smith at an event hosted by the Glenview Public Library at the Book Mart located in The Glen, in Glenview, IL



A number of girls, about 20, 3-6 year olds signed up for this event through the library. Hannah, Miss IL and Sheridan, Miss Chicago Outstanding Preteen, each read a book to the little girls. Before reading the girls all got to decorate a crown to wear, a nice art project. After reading they could ask questions and both Hannah and Sheridan spoke to the girls.


Next they moved to a table for signature cards, gave autographs and took photos with the girls both before and after.

The girls were very cute, many dressed up in princess costumes or outfits, lots of pink.



Miss IL Hannah and Cara Kokenes, our Miss Chicago Director

Cara the Miss Chicago Director brought flyers about the program and Hannah made sure to speak about the program, the Miss Chicago event and about the princess program, hoping some girls would consider signing up for it in the future and looking for a great mentoring program.

Children's Miracle Network Fundraising with Miss IL Hannah Smith

Miss Huntley director and teen queen and Hannah and her friends and BF and Sheridan

Sheridan was fortunate enough to be invited to join our new Miss IL, Hannah Smith to help at a fundraiser at Culvers in Carpentersville, IL last weekend, Saturday the 27th of August.

Sheridan knows Hannah Smith Miss IL 2011 because Hannah was one of the Miss Queens from the Miss Chicago/Windy City pageant where Sheridan holds the title of Miss Chicago Outstanding Preteen 2010. Hannah was the Windy City queen until she won at Miss IL competition at the end of June beginning of July 2011.

Then Hannah was kind enough to send us a note saying Sheridna will alway be her preteen.

Hannah and Sheridan

they had a great night together signing autograph cards and raising money for CMN
Miss IL is great system promoting community service and charity, scholarship, and mentoring.

Hannah and Sheridan

Sparkling Beauties Luau Pageant

Last weekend was the Sparkling Beauties Luau Pageant.
the Director is Melissa, she is great, i think very fair

this pageant consisted of beauty and outfit of choice OOC and then an optional of talent and two photogenic optionals, once glitz and one natural. Pictures are submitted a certain date before the pageant to be judged.

there were 19 girls competing. The higher titles to win are Grand Supreme; Mini Supreme; Talent Supreme; Most Beautiful; Best photo natural and Best photo glitz and then each division has a division queen and if you win none of that you are a princess. everyone leaves with a crown, only queens and higher titles get sashes as well. If you participate in optionals you can be double or multiple crowned, or at least multiple sashes and trophies.

there are also mini optionals at the door, best eyes, best smile, personality, and two others.
Sparkling Beauty pageants are semi glitz,so you can wear make up, not sure if you can wear flippers and hair pieces, but her rules tell you. She has a pageant every month or two.

This one was held at the DoubleTree hotel in Mundelein, a hop, skip, and jump from where I live.

On pageant day last weekend Sam rolled Sheridan's hair at home and I went and checked in and then i went to pick up our friends whose daughter was crowning, from the Libertyville Train station.

We got to spend time with our friend Alison who is 9 and was competing (she is in NISP with Sheridan) and her mom Jodi, and then our friend Mia was crowning and so was our friend Kassie P.

Sheridan was amazing. But it was a tough competition. Her division was originally 11-14 but because there were 8 girls in this division they split it to 11-12 and 13-14. Our friend Francine was competing, she is 13 and amazing. She can dance ballet, pointe so amazingly and i dont even like ballet, but when she dances it, you cant help to enjoy. Her mom makes her costumes and does a fabulous job.

Last time Sheridan and Francine competed was a Sparkling Beauties Snow Pageant and Sheridan won Talent in that one and won Mini Supreme and Frances won Supreme.


Frannie and Sheridan in Outfit of Choice

In this pageant, Frances again won Grand Supreme and Sheridan won Mini Supreme, but sheridan also won Talent, (she and Frances were tied and they broke the tie with the facial beauty score and sheridan won). Sheridan also won best Natural photo and then in her division one personality and smile.


Sheridan with all her awards and crown

Very Exciting and fun day.
after the pageant they all came and hung out at the house before Sheridan had to go to a fund raising event and I had a family party to attend.

Lake County Fair and democrats

come to the lake county fair and visit the lake county fair booth and see what they are up to. There is also the county clerk booth and you can see all the redistricting too.

Libertyville Township Meeting

Tomorrow is the LIbertyville Township meeting at township office at 7pm. Come see what the township is working on.

Miss IL Oustanding Preteen Photo contest

hi All, please vote for my daughter Sheridan Hurtig for Miss IL Oustanding PreTeen most photogenic.
here is the link
http://www.missillinois.org/preteen/photogenic.html

She is the last one of the pictures.
you vote at the top of the page. You can vote one time per IP Address. please vote for Sheridan and have your friends vote too.

the Contest is based 50% on the most votes and 50% on the judges choosing the best photo.

Here is the photo to look for;

Libertyville Township Meeting

this Thursday is the Libertyville Township Meeting, come join us at the Libertyville township office.
7pm. See what the township is up to!
sari

Hope Rocks Pageant

Saturday was the Hope Rocks Pageant in Grayslake IL. it was a fundraiser for fibromyalgia.



There were about 16 girls of all ages from baby to 16, i believe competing.
Sheridan was in the 9-12 preteen range, she is currently 12. She was the only one her age competing.


her young friends, Mia and Orianna also competed.

there were two parts to the competition, formalwear and 80's themewear. it was an 80's themed pageant.
after competition there was a contest for best 80's dance moves and an ice cream social.

this is part of the American Beauty Productions system - www.pageantelegance.com
what is nice about these pageants is that everyone wins a crown, and if you win the division you get a sash and trophy. there was also a high point title, the person who got the highest score of the entire pageant.


in this pageant there was a tie between sheridan and Orianna. they both got 119 total. sheridan got a 60 in 80's wear and a 59 in beauty and orianna the opposite. they broke the tie based on the best 80's wear score so sheridan got the overall title. it was a shcoker because she was crowned in her preteen division and then later called b/c of the tie and took the overall.

Miss Chicago Photo Shoot

Last Sunday Sheridan had new photos taken for Miss Chicago Outstanding PreTeen.
They were taken by the spectacular photographer Jennifer Heim. She made the shoot fun, had music and a great, new, magnificent, beautiful home studio.

She also takes photos for Miss Galaxy, our good friends Zena M. and Abbie H have shot magnificent photos with her as well. You would be wise to look her up. Her prices are reasonable and she makes it fun.



Here are a few of them of Sheridan. Wow doesnt she look old? She is only 12 so I will be getting a shotgun soon. LOL. I think Sheridan is exceptionally photogenic but of course I am a little bit biased towards my own child.


Sheridan, Miss Chicago Outstanding Preteen 2011

Concordia Relay for Life April 2009

There was a great Relay for Life Event this year at Concordia University. Our fellow Queen Imani Muse (and her mom Leslie) put the event together for IL Queens Unite.

Sheridan attended with her fellow queen as well as many other queens for other pageant systems, and they walked. They also ate, got their faces painted, and had a blast for a very worthwhile cause.


IL Queens posing

Cancer is an important program to support as it has affected our family in many ways. My father passed away from cancer 14 years ago,a rare form, slow growing tumor and two years later my mother died of Ovarian cancer. Sheridan was named after both my parents, Sheldon and Sheila. My stepfather passed away a few years later from throat and then brain cancer, he wasnt even a smoker and my mentor and Sheridan's pseudo grandma, Joy passed away from Ovarian cancer about 4 years ago as well.

Anytime you have an opportunity to support this worthy cause you should attend a relay for life. We did a few last year and a few the year before. There is always so much to do and so many ways to fundraise and have fun while doing it.


Imani M. and Sheridan, IL Coed Princes and Preteen 2010

Sweeps Pageant

Last weekend we went to the last pageant for the Miss IL pageants season before the Miss IL contest in Marion, IL June 28-July 3, 2011.

Here are the pictures of a few of the girls, the Miss Chicago Miss, Teen and PreTeen and a few of the Preteen Queens with Sheridan from other local systems.

Enjoy.

Miss Chicago Outstanding Preteen

Hi All,
On March 20, 2010 while I was out of town on a business trip, my good friends Sam and Allie took care of my daughter Sheridan and brought her to the Miss Chicago competiton held at Northeastern University.

There were a total of 6 preteens competing, one of which was Sheridan, three teens and 20-22 Miss contestants.

As I was waiting to board a plane i frantically tried to contact any friends that were there to see how interview had went. It was scheduled at 11am but ended up occuring at about 1 or 130. Sheridan wore the cutest outfit, a black sweater dress with a faux black and white collared shirt under it and a red belt and red pumps.
Sheridan interviewed with a panel of 5 judges and it went well. It went so well that one said during her interview what an inspiration she was and how impressed she was, did you see i said DURING the interview, wow.


Sheridan in interview outfit, after a good, positive interview.

I finally was able to connect via Facebook and Sam as well so she posted updates on FB. It seems the theater they were in was a deadzone for wireless so know one could text me.

Sam on FB invited a group of over 50 people to attend as a cheering section for Sheridan since I was not there to support her and I am as loud as 50, LOL.
We had a great group show up, 30 people or so including Sam and Allie, Cassidy and Janine, Jen, Sam and Aliya, Annika, Coleen and Brianna, Tricia, Julie and Meg, Kristen and Robin, Sheryl and Cassie, Zena and her fellow Galaxy queen, Sharon and Kalina, Jim, Alicia and Mia, and of course the outgoing preteen queen who is a friend Ashley. There may be more that I missed but it was a great turn out. Thank you all for being there when I could not be there.

Some of Sheridan's cheering section. thanks for coming.

Sheridan was amazing in talent so I heard and when she walked out in her blue gown really shown through. She had also modeled sportswear and after opening number answered her pop question. I believe it went well.

Sheridan Modeling for Sportswear

She ended up winning. My stomach was in knots, until I found out. I was so happy and excited for her. Now she will be under the director Cara and have a great year with I hope what will be many events.



Just crowned and the new queens

Voting

a quick statement to ask, did you vote today? The local elections may seem minor but they are the most important ones to vote at because you are effecting your immediate local municipalities.

Did you vote today? I did this morning at 7 am.

I hope you voted.

Miss Northern Suburbs Fashion show

Sheridan will be modeling for the Miss Northern Suburbs Fashion show again. This she year she will model as Miss Chicago Outstanding Preteen 2011, last year she was the first Miss Northern Suburbs Outstanding Preteen 2010. She is excited to do the fashion show again and her friend Cassidy now has the title Sheridan had last year so it will be such a fun time.


Sheridan as Miss Northern Suburbs 2010 modeling at last years event

The fashion show will take place at Lake Forest College in Glen Rowan House from 2pm - 4pm. The show this year is on fashion accessories. We will have Elle Originals, Lulu's Secrets and Just too Kute provide jewelery and accessories to model. All accessories will be available for purchase at the show as well. To show off the accessories, Miss (ages 17-24) and Teen (ages 13-17) will wear a black dress and heels while girls under age 13 will wear a white dress.

if you know anyone interested in modeling please contact Miss Northern suburbs
www.missnorthernsuburbs.com

ask for the directors Kristen or Robin

Fundraising for Children's Miracle Network for Miss Illinois Outstanding Preteen

Hi Friends,

As you may know, Sheridan just won Miss Chicago's Outstanding Pre-Teen this past Sunday.



She is getting ready to compete in the Miss America's Outstanding Pre-Teen pageant in June. As a contestant, she needs your help to raise money for Children's Miracle Network and the Miss America's Outstanding Pre- Teen Scholarship Fund. Please help her reach her goal of $250.00 by clicking on the link below (or cut and paste in a new browser).

Your donation will be considered a charitable donation for tax purposes and a receipt will be provided via email if donation is by credit card or e-check. If donation is by a paper check and over $250 then a receipt will be mailed at year end.

https://www.maoteen4kids.org/m.aspx?i=1201995EC3B5EEB51&e=227F9CE67E


Once you have completed a secure on-line donation, your donation will be included in my fund raising total on my personal page. To help even further you can forward this message on to other friends and family to help me in my fund raising efforts.

This year the Miss America's Outstanding Pre-Teen Organization has teamed up with Children's Miracle Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for 170 children's hospitals. This new partnership gives each contestant the opportunity to raise awareness and funds for two great organizations: Miss America's Outstanding Pre-Teen Scholarship Fund and Children's Miracle Network.

If you have any questions, please leave a message here.
Thanks for your support

Sari for Sheridan Hurtig

Libertyville Township meeting

Last night was our meeting. We covered various issues. Two bills were passed moving money frim one account to another. Stsandard budget adjustments.

We talked about rewriting our farm lease contracts to be more reflective of current land lease needs.

Our biggest issue was discussing tentative budgets for next year. Part of one of the budgets includes a trail relocation project originally estimated to cost 250k now costing about $430k. We have $230k coming in from forced land sale on milwaukee/21 expansion project, but still now we have to use that money for the trail relocation. We also found out our two bridges on that trail are not up to code and need to be redone, that is about $70k of the expense. Where past boards created the original trail now to be moved, they thought more frugally has ended up costing us more to fix. Hindsight is 20/20.

The tentative budget passed but terry, rick and even myself were hoping to find ways to bring the cost of the trail relocarion down.

I will not be at the two march meetings. One night daughter in play n second meeting I am out of town for a conference for my day job.

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Sheridan with trophies from sparkling beauty mardi gras pageant

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Sparkling beauties mardi gras pageant

Yesterday was sparkling beauties mardi gras pageant in elmhurst,il. It was great fun. There were about 30 contestants competing in beauty, mardi gras wear and optional talent.

These pageants are difficult because they are an everything goes pageant. There is glitz, natural and everything in between. You compete in your division for the queen title but everyone competes for mini supreme. Supreme and most beautiful. Talent and best photos in this system are optional. So for some titles like grand supreme you are competing with everyone, the cute little kids and the more practiced, polished older contestants.

Yesterday was no exception. Competition was tough. In sheridans division she was up against frances and tina, ages 13 abd 14 respectively. Sheridan is newly 12.

We had many friends there competing, little ones Mia n Orianna n Sydney. Stephen in boys division. Kassie and Megan Mae in the older division.

It was a fun day. Sheridan won tge best talent title, and most beautifal. They are highest talent score overall and highest beauty score overall. Not bad. Frabces won mini supreme 12 and up. Sydney win grand supreme.

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Township meeting tonight

Tonight was a quick libertyville township meeting.. Bills all approved and voted on a change to our farmland leasing rules.

You could say I dissented because the board voted for a rule to allow board discretion but I didnt agree because the discretion could lead to bias or favoritism and I dont want that to be a potential issue.

After all look at all the missuse the illinois state govnt has because of their ability to have "discretionary" powers. Ridiculous the mess the have put us in.

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