Busy Vicky

Trip to Albany

Hey everyone last week I was able to spend time in Albany in support of the youth bureau system. This is an annual trip that youth bureau across the state bring youth from their area on. It’s a two day event where kids get to take part in workshops and also meet with the elected representatives. However this year the trip was more important than ever. Days before the event took place the Governor’s budget was released and it was not good for youth bureaus at all. In the budget he eliminates youth bureaus and makes funding for youth programming a competitive grant.

A youth bureau is an agency created by Counties and Cities, or a Town or Village with a total population of 20,000 or more, for the purpose of planning, coordinating and supplementing the activities of public, private, and religious agencies devoted to the welfare and protection of youth. The youth bureau system embodies the definition of youth development as an ongoing process in which children and adolescents seek ways to meet their personal and social needs, building skills and competencies that allow them to be successful and function effectively in their daily lives. Youth development recognizes the potential which young people possess and builds upon their strengths.

Youth bureaus help promote the physical, emotional and social well being of youth and families in New York State. Each youth bureau currently receives funding from the state based on a population formula. They can then use the funding to help fund programs that help meet the needs of their local youth population. This allows youth from across the state opportunities to take part in programs including summer recreation.

In other news…..

Beyond this I have been keeping very busy with school lately, I have my first paper due next Monday and at the end of this month I will be taking my midterms! I also leave next weekend for the Miss Finger Lakes Pageant and I am looking forward to it so much. I also made a very snowy trip to with Amy V to see Miss Fulton County and I am so excited to congratulate my pageant sister, Kieren Sheridan on becoming Miss Fulton County!!!! Also first runner up Danielle Trumbull, my other very good friend second runner up Amanda Boyer who was also overall talent and interview awards winner!!!!

This upcoming weekend I will be speaking on a panel at the 59^th annual Diocesan of Buffalo Youth Conference. Check out a Youtube video of the event. It is something I took part in as a youth and I am so happy I have been ask back to speak about my faith journey. I am still trying to figure out my words of what I will say. Hopefully it will be finished soon and I will share it with you all.

Miss Finger Lakes is on the way

This past weekend I took some time out to go to the Miss Finger Lakes workshop. I am so happy that I got to spend time with everyone. I got to have a mock interview, even if I was a little nervous. We also learned the walking patterns and the opening number J all and all a great day. I was also able to share some of the amazing tips I learned from Robert Jones, I love sharing the knowledge I have gained.

Starting school has been really stressful but I know I will get through it. I am not use to the level of work and it’s hard to find balance. This weekend I am off to see Miss Fulton County, I am so excited and can’t wait to see more of my pageant friends again. I will also be attending my first meeting for Fabulous Females , it’s an annual fundraising event the YWCA that honors amazing women in our community. I am very excited about being apart in the planning of this event. I am also glad to again be serving on the Voice of Experience event which will take place in March. Other upcoming events include speaking at the Diocese of Buffalo’s annual youth conference which I still need to find the words for and a trip to Albany next week for the Association of New York State Youth Bureaus leadership forum.

I love everything I get to do but a lot of times is seems like while a lot!!!! It’s times like this I have to remember to enjoy the journey and how lucky I truly am.

MLK Day

Hey everyone life has been crazy and fun lately. This past Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service. To celebrate the 25^th anniversary of MLK day Batavia had two different events. The first was a reading of the “I had a dream speech”, this is one of my all time favorite speeches of all time and great to hear read live. Making it even cooler, a AmeriCorps member did the reading!!! I stop by the event to see him do the speech and enjoy the event.

However I had to jet from there to my own event. I have been helping to plan a service project for this day since October. The event had a number of different areas to it, there was no sewing fleece blanket making project for Agri-Business Child Development Center. We also had card making for members of the military. In total we had over 70 volunteers, made 30 blankets from fleece donated by Zonta Club of Batavia-Genesee and made over 100 cards that will be sent to member of the military overseas for Valentine’s Day.

Today is also a very special anniversary, today marks the 50^th anniversary of the JFK inauguration address. This is one of my all time favorite speeches and I thought I should included some well known quotes from the speech today:

"...the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God."

"Let the word go forth.....that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans."

"The world is very very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life."

"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."

"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country"

"All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

"...let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

Forgive me

I have been a horrible blog keeper as of late. So much has been going on!!!!!!!! Christmas was amazing and I had such a wonderful time. I got to spend time with the best kids ever, my cousins’ Jen and Marie’s kids. It was great talking about Santa and being a human horse!!!

Holidays are always fun but a bit crazy also. I literally was so tired on Christmas Eve I didn’t wake up till 9 AM Christmas Day…that is late for me. I also got to spend New Year’s with awesome people!! AJ’s friend’s Adam and Lexie got the Dance Central game for the Xbox. I am officially addicted to that game!!! I can’t wait to get it for myself so I can play all the time.

AJ and I also celebrated our six month anniversary; it’s so hard to believe it has been that long already. For it we went to see Country Strong, it didn’t get good ratings but I really liked it a lot. I highly recommended it and also the soundtrack it amazing.

This Saturday I will be crossing my fingers and sitting on the edge of my seat watching the Miss American Pageant. I am so proud and excited for Clair and just want her to do so while. She truly desires to be on the stage and compete. No matter what I know she will represent New York with pride.

Monday I will be helping out making fleece blankets for the Agro-Business Child Care Center. It is a project for Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. I will take place from 1-3 at the senior center in Batavia. I am excited for the project because I have been working on planning it since I starting my AmeriCorps placement in October. In other AmeriCorps news, I am now certified in first aid and CPR again. So if you need help call 911 lol.

Next month I am also honored to say that I have been ask to speak on a panel for the Diocese of Buffalo’s Youth Conference about my faith journey. My journey in general is something I have been thinking a lot about as of late. I think it is so important to remember the roads you had to travel. I have been feeling like I have accomplished much as of late, but looking at where I stated I see how much I have been able to do.

I think that it’s great we have kids thinking about college at a younger age, however I think it can also bring up problems. When I was little I knew I wanted to go to college but I didn’t understand totally about the cost, however I was too dumb to doubt in a good way. I never question being able about to afford college, I just knew I had to go.

I think truly if I would have stopped and thought about it, I would have felt it was an impossible task to do. But I didn’t I just kept on going along and never questioned it. I am grateful no one ever stopped me and I am also very lucky that when I had to start thinking about the money someone told me about financial aid. I am also grateful that that she never tried to say that college was going to hurt me or put me in debt. She helped me find a way.

I have not had a perfect journey in life, but no one really does. In the end I try to learn and grow, looking back all my hard times have helped me be stronger and more able to help others. I couldn’t imagine working and helping people if I didn’t have the life experiences I have had. Life is always easy but it is always worth the clime. My journey had just begun.

Here's to 2010, looking forward to 2011

I got this idea from a wonderful business coach Nancy Roberts, she is the founder of Insights
This was in her latest newsletter I receive and I just I loved the idea.

Top 25 Accomplishments
Graduating with my Bachelors of Science
Being Assistant Choreographer for Chicago
Going to Dallas for the annual Mary Kay Seminar
Spending a month in Europe
Community Service Award at Miss Thousand Islands
Being Miss Congeniality at Miss Finger Lakes
Going to a winner bills game
Getting on a program at the gym
Celebrating being a Star Consultant for the 4^th quarter
Celebrating year three in my own apartment
Paying off my car
Going to Go Give Advance in New Jersey and winning a purse
Going to New Jersey and getting to see my Cousin
Judging National American Miss state pageant
Running Genesee County Fair Queen Pageant
Being in a dunk tank
Taking part in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
Completing a law internship
Meeting Robert Jones the makeup artist
Getting into Graduate School
Completing my first semester of graduate work
Taking part in Young Christians at Work this year
Celebrating my 23^rd birthday, happy and healthy
Starting my third AmeriCorps placement
Becoming a member of Zonta International

Top 10 distractions
Bad relationships
Not focusing on me
Letting the urgent cloud my focus
Forgetting how much I have done
Self doubt
Not being able to let go
Trying to fix everything
Blaming myself for everything
Missing the big picture
Not listening enough

Top 10 goals for 2011
Complete my Masters
Become a Star Consultant again
Pay off credit card debt
Focusing where I will apply once I graduate
Read one “good for me” book a month
Start back on my workout plan
Learn to cook a larger variety of foods
Learn to ball room dance
Go on at least two weekend trip for fun
See a Broadway show

Help Miss New York

Hey everyone, new blog is coming soon. Tomorrow is my official last day of class!!!! I will tell you all about it this weekend but for now.....Please help Miss New York be one set closer to becoming Miss America :)

Tis the Season

Its Christmas time, it has started to snow here in western New York. I have a love and hate relationship with the snow. It is so pretty at times and light and fluffy. However snow can also be dangerous to drive in and I really do not like the cold at all. Christmas time is also means it is the end of my semester and I have a ton of work do. I have spent most of the weekend writing papers and putting together power points. Yesterday I took the time to put my tree up.

Traditions over the year have become more and more important to me. I love making cookies and putting up the tree, I have tried to start collecting ornaments that are cute and have a story behind them. For example I have a ballerina that I got when I sang with the RPO. I also have Tim Hortan’s cup because of my love for their coffee, also because I use to have breakfast there all the time when I was in middle school. I also have a St. Anthony’s one to remind me of my church. I also try to decorate cookies every year and I love going to midnight mass. The holidays are the most special because you get to spend time with family and friends.

I finish my last class for my first semester of my Masters, it has been a hard transition but I am glad I did choice to get my Masters. I enjoy my classmates a lot and have learned a lot from them. I have also been force to think outside the box and challenge my ideas. This is what I enjoy most about education, the ability to challenge by beliefs and ideas.

Things are always so busy however also during the holiday time. Thursday the AmeriCorps program had its community service training followed by holiday card making. Because of my night class, I wasn’t able to stay for the card making. Every year we make Christmas cards for the troops is a really great night.

In other news I am still planning the MLK day event, we just got a donation from BJ’s Club and also Zonta Club members will be donating fleece for the project. I am getting more excited about the project and can’t wait to see how happy the kids are when they get the blankets. It should be a great event….On MLK day from 1-3 at the Senior Center in Batavia, NY,

I also cleaned out my storage area; I donated a bunch of stuffed animals that have been in storage since I moved into my apartment. I also find a ton of pictures that I really need to go through and pick ones to save. It so funny to see old pictures of me and of growing up, you forget so much of the small stuff. As much fun as it is to look back at those pictures, I am happy about where I am now. It’s funny what a big deal you make of stuff when you are younger, and how little it means later on in life. So often you hear to be young again, but I truly don’t want to be I am happy where I am now and what the next couple years hold for me.