Valentine's Fundraising Dinner and Dance for AMH Breakfast Feeding Program

My pageant director, Agnes Higley is the founder of the AMH Breakfast Feeding Program in the Philippines. Her organization raises money that makes it possible for underprivileged elementary students to get fed once a week. Her thought process behind this is, "How can children focus in school if they're concentrated on how hungry they are?"

She decided to host a Valentine's fundraising dinner and dance at the Red Lion Hotel. After I told her I would be attending, she invited me to be the co-emcee along with Duy Beck.

We also had a wonderful group of performers who donated their talent for the entertainment portion. My 1st runner-up, Nyomy Obcemea and her siblings performed a couple songs and blew everyone away with their talent. Agnes also got up on stage herself and performed a lovely dance with her "Timber Girls." Joseph Buenaflor stopped by and graced us with his voice. My little sister also came by after work to showcase her Vietnamese fan dance.

The turnout was great! We had people who drove all the way from Vernal and Roosevelt!

We also had a great selection of raffle prizes and silent auction items. I couldn't believe all of the items were donated. The support and donations are very heartwarming :)

I had fun working with Duy! We make a pretty awesome team :)

Angelica was in attendance! She put up some baskets up for auction and brought strawberries to sell to help her raised money for the journey to Miss Philippines Earth.

My boyfriend is such a trooper. He sacrificed our anticipated private Valentine's evening so I could help out a good cause.

 

My lovely pageant sisters helped out with the raffle.

Mad love for my Filipino family :)

We also crowned a Mr. and Mrs. Valentines along with the Most Romantic Couple. These pairs earned it! Congrats!

Thank you for having us, Agnes! And congratulations on such a successful event :)

Fun Photo Booth Pictures from "Live and Love with Faith" Gala

"Love and Live with Faith" Gala

A busy day it was! I arrived at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center promptly at 4:00 p.m. to get the models rehearsed for our fashion show. I had approximately 20 girls to manage for this multi-cultural segment so I made sure to pre-plan everything to make sure that it went smoothly.

As the doors opened for the gala, all of us changed into our formal outfits. It was lovely to be able to dress up every once in a while. Makes me feel like I'm going to prom again. Duy Beck (the event organizer) scheduled me to be the first speaker of the program. I spoke about my pageant director, Agnes's AMH Breakfast Feeding Program, which is a non-profit organization that aims at feeding underprivileged children in the Philippines at various elementary schools. I had the pleasure of interviewing her the week before to understand more about her cause. It was my honor to speak on behalf of her charity! :)

The food was delicious as well! I really appreciate Duy for making sure that all of the models got fed.

I also want to give a shoutout to Sosimbo Photography (Vissal and Harry) for donating their photography services and photobooth for the gala. They always do such a great job and us girls had such a blast being silly with each other.

Halfway through the program, us girls finished up our food and went backstage to change. I absolutely loved everyone's costumes and was so excited for them to showcase their cultures to the audience.

Our fashion show included wardrobe from Arabia, Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Japan, Native America, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Thailand, USA, and Vietnam. It was such a great turnout. I'm so proud of these ladies. We pulled it off with just one rehearsal!

 

 

Our community just grows and grows. Acquaintances turn into friends. And friends turn into family. I'll never get tired of this group :)

Once again. I would like to thank Duy Beck for inviting me to direct this wonderful fashion show for the Virtua Foundation's annual H.UG.S for Tugs' "Live and Love with Faith" gala; all of the models for donating your time and effort to making this fashion show possible; and everyone else for the support and encouragement in making this event possible. Everything we did will help the Virtua Foundations accomplish their missions. God bless! :)