Copy of Article this year on Sheridan

Here a part of the Libertyville and Mundelein Pioneer press article andt he picture they posted.

Sheridan Hurtig, 10, of Mundelein competes in the American Coed Pageants Inc. annual state pageant. Hurtig competed against 11 other girls in the state pageant and was first runner-up. Because of her strong performance at that pageant, Hurtig has been selected to represent Chicago at the 2009 National Miss American Coed Pageant Nov. 23 through 28 at the Hilton Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Miss Northern Suburbs Meeting

There is a Miss Northern Suburbs meeting today at Beach State park at 4pm. This is a pageant that is part of the Miss IL / Miss America system.

Sheridan holds the title of Miss Dupage County outstanding pre-teen but the title was appointed her. She then competed in the state competition in Springfield on Memorial day weekend last year. It was fun and a good experience.

Last year they started the Pre-Teen program for 10-12 year olds so many of the girls were appointed. This year there a competitions in order to go to state. Not sure how many girls in this age range will compete, but it can be very competitive. Her friend Cassidy is competing against her and she held the title Little Miss Vernon Hills. These girls are 2 days apart in age but Cassidy has 6 inches on Sheridan and is definitely looking like a teen (developing) where Sheridan still looks young.

This year for talent Sheridan is going to sing the song Good Morning Baltimore from the Musical Hairspray. For this competition they only have 90 seconds. Luckily I have friend, John, with a sound studio and he was able to cut/splice the song to get it to 90 seconds and sound right.

The competiton for Miss Northern Suburbs is at Lake Forest College on January 16 and there are Miss, Teen and Pre-Teens competing. They have private interviews with a panel (20%), have a question on stage & model their gown (15%) and Lifestyle/fitness wear (15%) and talent (20%).

The preteens are supposedly modeling some sports outfit. The Miss model a bathing suit. The teens, not sure. At Dupage County last year the teens modeled shorts and tanks and did a little stretch while modeling to show their shape and athleticism.

Will keep you updated.

American Coed Nationals, Pageant Week day 1

Sheridan in welcoming suit.

Sheridan w/Michael Galanes rehearsing on stage.

Sheridan and Sam at Gatorland.

Wow, The week in Florida was amazing.

As I said in earlier post, we arrived much later than planned on Sunday evening. We got settled in and went to bed by 1am.

We slept in on Monday, if you call 8 am sleeping in. We had breakfast and then went to Gatorland and spent about 3-4 hours there. It was a nice time. We saw all these cool Gators and some neet white ones too, and they aren't albino b/c they have blue eyes, they are some special accidental breed that was found in LA. Very cool.

We got back in time to attempt to take a nap, which sheridan needed but wouldnt take. Then we we got our number for signing in. There was a few hours wait. Sheridan was wearing a grey suit and looked very cute. We went in a few of the ballrooms to practice for optionals and pageant competition while waiting. Sheridan practiced her speech, modeling and actress optionals and then in the other ballroom practiced walking in her gown. Michael Galanes our IL director was there to help her!.

That night we had an IL meeting too. It was good to get together and get the lay of the land, rules etc. and see everyone.

We did not go to the nightly dinner but went to the concierge lounge and ate there that night.

it was yummy.

catching up - luggage, packing for nationals.

There is so much to catch up on.

We had a great time at the American Coed national pageant in Orlando Florida this past week. It will take me time to post all the information.

to start when we gotto the Milwaukee airport I unloaded the car and realized I forgot to pack the most important bag, the one with the competition clothing.

A few tips, work off a list. That helped, i didnt forget anything on the list in the bags.

Make sure to take ALL the bags and keep them togther. The garment bag piece of luggage with all the competition outfits was in another room and I didnt bring it downstairs into the living room with all the other luggage - whoops, big mistake.

We arrived at airport at 8 am,plenty of time for teh 930 Southwest flight, but then forgot the bag so had to go back home to get the most important bag. Hmmm what to do, leave Sam, our friend, hair stylist and coach at the airport with my 10 year old daughter, let them go on the flight and me come back later with the bag and go on standby? Pay $1200 for a new ticket for each of us, ONE WAY, hmmm. We called Southwest, said we overslept and missed the flight. They found us a new flight leaving at 620pm arriving at 10 in FL and we actually got a credit of $51, not bad.

We did end up having to spend the day in cold IL instead of sunny, warm FL but we relaxed, ate and caught a movie. I made sure to put that last bag in the car too.

It all worked out. See the picture of the girls on the plane.

Let's talk politics.

Missed the last Township October meeting last month because we were out of town in Omaha at a wedding. This month, November we only have one meeting because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Let's talk politics in general... What do you think about the H1N1 Vaccinations. Have you gotten yours, are you going to? In Mundelein, IL we had a clinic available at a local Jr. High. Started on last week Thursday and the line was very long, or so my friend told me. They got smart and started handing out numbers and you could come back for the shot later. On Friday the clinic was busy as well and ran out of shots and turned people away. Saturday's clinic was cancelled.

Do you think this is the governments fault, or the manufacturer's. that there werent enough available? Do you think that that our president should have promised 10% of our H1N1 vaccines to other governments especially when there are aren't enough for our own US citizens to get vaccinated?

I had a regular flu shot but I wasnt sure if I was going to have my daughter and myself get an H1N1 vaccination b/c I dont know about these shots. Were they properly tested and are they effective or might there be other problems or long term effects? I guess with the clinic running out of vaccinations I didnt have to make that decision in the end. I try to keep our immune systems up with healthy diets, a lot of sleep, and acidophilus(sp?).

So going back to politics, does this mean that if the government can't handle doling out simple vaccinations, how would the government handle health insurance. Should they choose what doctors we can and can't see, if we can get treated, get an operation or if we are too old to get treatment? Did we really want or vote for a socialist president or want a socialist government, is that the way the Dems are going b/c that is not the kind of Dem I am... and if some health program is put into place, and we dont like it... can we eliminate it. How possible will that be with our government system and the horrible slow grind?

Just some thoughts and ideas for the day.

NISP pageant pictures

Check out the big honking crown

Sheridan home after the play trying on the new crown since we missed the pictures after the pageant.

Sheridan's formal gown.

Sheridan's queen friends

The stiff competition. These girls were great.

Left to right, Kara, Marissa, Sheridan, Reene and Meg.

Here are more pictures from NISP Pageant, Nov. 1, 2009

NISP Northern IL Scholarship Program Nov 1 2010

Sheridan's poster on donating to food pantries.

Sheridan in Interview suit

Sheridan in gown for talent, playing piano.

Sheridan showing her sportswear modeling outfit.

Sheridan in her Star modeling outfit.

Yesterday was a big day for us. Sheridan and I left the house at 730 am to go sign in at NISP for her competition.

The morning started with a practice at about 830-9 and then changing for the first of three performing optionals. The first optionals was Star Modeling, to be followed by Sportswear Modeling and lastly by Talent. Before these optionals began the judges also judged the girls on the optionals they could turn in, being essay, photogenic; and community service poster.

For Star Modeling Sheridan wore a zebra blouse with white capri pants, zebra sparkly flats, zebra earrings and a black hat. For Sportswear she wore a blue tennis skort, a white sleeveless top, a white visor, blue hanging heart earrings, white socks and gym shoes and of course nicely decorated tennis racket. For her talent, playing piano, she wore a beautiful coral gown and she played the Sea Chanty (What can you do with a drunken sailor).

After optionals it was lunch, mmm yummy healthy McDonalds, then back to redo the hair. I forgot to mention we put Sheridan's hair in hot rollers this morning, did the poof or bump and then a flip of the hair. We reroled it after lunch to get the curl back, her hair is very light, thin and drops, doesnt hold a curl very well or very long.

Next was a speech to be given. Sheridan wore her new suit and gave a speech on The person she most admires, and it was ME, so nice. She did a great performance. Then the girls changed into their gowns for the modeling of the gowns and answering the two questions, one from their information sheet and one from a basket of pop questions.

Sheridan's first question from her fact sheet was about her participating in a program at school called Walk Chicago and she explained what it was, how they go out on a track and walk and then earn rewards at the end of the year for the laps they counted throughout the year.

Her second question was about looks and do you have to look good all the time - her answer was no because I think inner beauty is what is important not the physical looks. Her replies were amazing.

Unfortunately these process took a long time and so did the tabulating and handing out the prizes and crowning. They started after lunch about 30 minutes late and that put the afternoon behind. This was bad for us because Sheridan had a play to be in at 630 and Sheridan earned a crown but we waited until 6pm. We were really pushing it.

Today was a hard day of competion. Only 15 girls/women competed overall in the pageant. Sheridan's division had 5 girls, like last year, and they were all very, very good, stiff competition, also like last year.

Sheridan's friend Marissa earned the princess ambassador, that is what Sheridan was last year. Kara was the Jr. winner, and she also hold a high title in Dream Girls. I failed to mention before the actual crowning awards were given for optionals. Sheridan won many medals including one for poster and essay and for both modeling optionals and she won the trophies and prizes for both the modeling, and some cool nisp bags with them as well. Sheridan also won the award for the highest overall points in the pageant portion alone, without the optional points. With that and with the two girls crowned in Jr. division we know that she had the chance of winning the two higher crowns she was competing for as well, including Elite and Jr. Supreme Star.

Sheridan won Jr. Supreme Star and the crown is sooo big. The trophy is over half her size. She also got a cool septor, a photo box, an address book, a mini calculator key chain, a gorgeous rhinestone necklace and earrings and a crown pin and tshirt, and I forgot the cool black and white sash too. She was very excited, overwhelmed and so was I. We were very proud.

You Rock Sheridan.