Annika Kovar
Creating Generation Healthy
Super Excited to talk to more children about Creating Generation Healthy, and sharing the MyPlate Pedge with them. the My Plate Pledge give kids the opportunity to become a MyPlate Champion by signing there name on their certificate and pledging to do the following.
Eat More fruit and veggies, Try whole grains, Re-think my drink, Focus on lean protein, Slow down on sweets, and Be active my way.
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This is my 4th year as part of the Perham High School Speech Team. Nothing better than getting up at 5AM every Saturday morning, boarding a bus and heading to a speech tournament. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Speech, there are 13 different categories for students to compete in including Creative, Discussion, Drama, Dramatic Duo, Ex Reading, Ex Speaking, Great Speeches, Humor, Inform, Original Oratory, Prose and Story Telling. I have competed a variety of categories including Drama, Duo, Ex Reading, Humor, and Prose. The past three years I have triple entered at tournaments, but this year I am focusing on just two events, Prose and Drama. Speech has also given me the opportunity to do peer coaching and serve on it's Leadership Team.
It was an honor to be chosen to sing at the NDSU Women's Choral Festival as one of only four woman's feature choirs from our region. Then singing as a whole choir combined after just a half day rehearsal with these other talented young ladies from Minnesota and North Dakota, was such a privilege. Less than a month away before Perham high school travels to Chicago to be part of the Windy City Music Festival. It has been a whirlwind year for our chorale program, and I am embracing every minute of it.
I alone can not change the world. But I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Mother Teresa
Meet Joice, she is the 5 year old little girl I sponsor from Zambia, Africa. So, why does a 16 year old from Minnesota decide to sponsor someone half a world away , let me share that story with you. I recently attended a concert at my church featuring Christian artist, Mark Schultz. During the concert, Mark shared with us a video of some children in Africa in a village where he sponsors a child. In the video the kids had learned the lyrics to one of his most famous songs, Remember Me. Near the end of the video several of the kids being filmed one by one repeated the phrase, "Remember Me". My sister Kassidy and I were both moved by the video and following the concert sought out information about how to sponsor one of the children in Mark's village. The cost is just $33/month, and allows you to send and receive letters from your sponsor child. I know it probably isn't the typical teen age thing to do, giving up money you have saved from your part-time summer job cleaning cabins, but I cannot tell you how right it feels. If you would like information about sponsoring a child in Africa, or another part of the world you can get more information at childfund.org or message me, I would love to share more about it. Heart for Hunger Food Drive produced over 200 pounds of food, and $22.00. Thanks to Perham High School, Prairie Wind Middle School,Heart of the Lakes Elementary School, and Great Beginnings Childcare for helping collect all of the donations. These amounts will be included with the Food Shelves March collections and doubled with matching funds.
Congratulations and Welcome to the new 2017 Title holders!
Can't wait to see all of the wonderful things you do with your titles! Miss River Valley - Tiara Gowen, Miss St Croix Valley - Brooke Critchley, Miss River Valley's Outstanding Teen - Lillie Imm, Miss St Croix Valley's Outstanding Teen -Samantha Nash! Feeling honored today as my Concert Choir will be performing at the Minnesota Music Educators Association Convention in Minneapolis! Only 9 other choirs were chosen after the audition process, so we are very honored to perform in front of music educators from across our great state.
We will perform at 1pm today (Feb 16) at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. If you are in the area, stop by for the free concert! Sending out some Thank You notes to some of our very appreciated Pageant Sponsors. Team Waseca has been blessed with some of the best sponsors ever, and I love that we are provided their addresses, so that we can personally thank them for all they do for our Program!
My Waseca sister queens and I were asked to help serve at the American Legion Valentine Dinner and Dance the evening of February 11th. the proceeds we earned will go to Waseca Pageant Scholarships. Can't think of a better way to spend my evening then giving back to a community that gives so much!
February 11th started with early morning parade registration. Team Waseca was there dressed in our new Team Waseca jackets to help parade entries run smoothly. Following registration, we each hopped on our horse drawn sleighs for the Sleigh and Cutter Parade. Following the parade, we enjoyed other fun festival attractions like ice sculptures.
Sleigh and Cutter Festival is one of the longest winter festivals around, lasting three weeks. My sister queens and I were happy to help out at this years Gold Star Dinner and Danceon February 10th, as Sleigh and Cutter is one of our biggest Pageant Sponsors.
This week for our activity at Great Beginnings Childcare, I asked the kids to participate in my Heart For Hunger Food Drive. We decided that the collection box should resemble a Valentine Box, so the kids decorated it with hand made valentine hearts and stickers. It turned out awesome. They all voted unanimously that instead of bringing sugary sweets to exchange with their friends for Valentines Day, that they would rather bring food items for people who don't have food. Wow, so proud of these kids, they all have the biggest HEARTS!
This month I organized a food drive called Heart for Hunger. I partnered with the schools in my community and created fun ways that the students can actively participate in raising donations. Heart of the Lakes Elementary will be having Pajamas for a Purpose on Friday February 3rd. Each child is encouraged to bring either $1 or a food item to donate. Then the following week, Prairie Wind Middle School ad Perham High School will have a Hats for Huger Day, where the students will be allowed to wear a hat to school in exchange for donating $1 or a food item. The public is also encouraged to participate and can drop off donations at any of the schools during regular school hours. The Perham Focus newspaper was happy to run a story promoting the event, and I also spread the word with posters and via Facebook. In my Facebook post, I also encouraged people to make donations in their home town to their Food shelf. I hope everyone has a Heart for Hunger this month!
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Annika Kovar
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