Miss Garden Grove 2011: Boys and Girls Club Wine Tasting Event

Yesterday, I attended the annual benefit event for the Boys and Girls Club, held at the Kiwanisland. Since I was on Miss GG court last year, I attended this event as well and this always has a great turnout! Hundreds of people waited in line to taste their favorite wines and eat some delicious food, but most importantly, they were there to support and sponsor the Boys and Girls Club of Garden Grove. Outback Steakhouse was the main provider of food, which I ate a lot of! Jay's Catering was there along with a few other appetizing caterers. There were many booths set up with silent auction items like original paintings, sports paraphernalia (some with famous autographs), restaurant gift cards, vacation plans, and even a talking Elvis head!

Aimee, and Bree joined me in selling the 50/50 raffle tickets and we sold $1440 dollars worth of tickets; that means that the winner of this drawing got a whopping $720! I was amazed to see how many people were so generous enough to support the Boys and Girls Club! Towards the end of the day, a live auction started! The auctioneer started off the auction by asking for people's selfless donations. The first donation asked for was $1,000, which would go to a child in the club and several people rose their auction numbers to do so. Another donation of $700+ was being taken and from what I remember, this $700 kept one child from the BGG club fed for one year. People left and right rose their number pads to donate $700. Again, I was amazed to see selfless giving come from so many people in our community, some of which were from out of state! The live auction had some amazing prizes! There was a giant plasma TV, a wine cooler, trips to Hawaii and New York, and some other prestigious prizes. The audience was going wild with their auction numbers! Through all of the excitement, it was awesome to know that all of the money was going to the Boys and Girls Club.

The auction area....such a great turnout!

Although this event was for a serious cause, it was a lot of fun too! I had the privilege to play the harp for the first hour as people walked in to Kiwanisland. I played the harp at this event last year and obviously the BGG club liked me enough for me to do it again! I set a peaceful atmosphere for those coming in frantically to register and I know people enjoyed my playing. :)

And I had a little surprise visitor! She is a frequent reporter for Channel 3 News and she was there to report this event! Chasta Nechvatal is my big sister, one of my best friends, and not to mention, she was Miss Anaheim 2007! I was Anaheim's Outstanding Teen that same year and we grew to be sisters. If you've missed out on knowing Chasta, I'll tell you all about her. She is SO beautiful, an amazing Tahitian dancer, has the sweetest spirit, and has achieved so much in her life so far! She is one of my idols and I love her so much! It was such a great moment, to see her as a reporter and for her to see me as a titleholder! She is thinking of competing again for a local title and I know she will kick butt! If she competes, I hope she wins so that we can be roomies at Miss CA in June! I'm so proud of her for being a Channel 3 News reporter, they're lucky to have her.

This is us now.....

and this was us then!

I continued to have a little fun throughout the day too! It has only been a little over a month since the GG pageant and I have already been to so many events! Like I have said before, attending events like this remind me how lucky I am to be in Garden Grove! This community is so close-knit and it is so great to see everyone come together to support such a great cause!