Jade Monfils at the Texas Tough Relay Race

This weekend was the 1st annual Texas Tough Relay Race held at the Cotton Bowl. It is a 3 part series of events, the other events include swimming and biking. The running relay portion is a 5K, and people can run as individuals or as a team. One of the groups that I met ran as a benefit for a young boy named Conner. "Team Connor" was sponsored by Children's medical center. My duties were at the finish line, it is always great to see people who set a goal and accomplish it. The finish line is a great place to see that in action!! :)

Miss Texas International Pageant 2009

This past weekend was extremely tiring as well as exciting! I drove to San Antonio to compete with 68 other extraordinary ladies in the Miss Texas International pageant. This pageant combines 3 divisions including Teen, Miss, and Mrs. On the Friday that I arrived we had orientation, where I got to meet several of the other contestants. All of us were from different areas of Texas, it was really interesting to see where everyone else was from and hear their own personal stories. The International pageant system in known for being platform based, so it was inspiring to hear about each lady's individual platform that it close to each of their hearts. On Saturday we had our personal interviews in the morning one on one with the judges.
I was so honored to meet Miss International 2008, Janya Altman, she was one of the five judges! After the interviews we all piled into a Hummer limo and rode to the Riverwalk Mall, where we signed autographs and took the riverboat tour. Afterwards we went to dinner at Augie's Barbed Wire Smokehouse. Then Sunday was the big competition day! We had rehearsals all morning and the pageant started at 5:00 with on-stage interviews. At the end of the night, awards were presented and I was so honored to receive the Miss Congeniality award (just like the movie, I was in San Antonio!!) since it was voted on by all the other contestants on who they felt displayed the true feeling of pageantry over the weekend. :) I also won the Community Service Award, Fitness Award, Evening Gown Award, Fashion Wear Award, and the top title of Miss Texas International!! I am so honored to be representing the great state of Texas in the upcoming Miss International Pageant July 24th and 25th in Chicago!!

Jade Monfils at the Dallas Bea's Kids

Bea's Kids is an after-school tutoring center that has 4 locations in the Dallas metroplex. The 3rd location that I attended was their Dallas branch, this location has fewer kids, but they didn't lack any personality! When I arrived it was mostly the younger group in 1st- 3rd grade. One of the tutoring methods at this location is if the kids have questions they raise their hands. This is so that they try to do it themselves first, and then the tutors can check/show them how to do a problem correctly. The children were being very competitive in their game show like vocabulary quiz, but in the end they were all winners! I gave all of them signed autograph cards, and they didn't want me to leave. They were so sweet, when I was driving off 2 little girls said they wanted to go with me! I said "Don't worry, I'll come back and help with you with your homework again".

Jade Monfils at the Billiard's Ball benefiting the Boys and Girls Club

I was so honored to attend the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Dallas's annual Billiard's Ball. It is the one of the organizations biggest events of the year. It was an honor to be in the presence of such established people, Dallas's own Mayor Leppert, former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, and many others. But the real enjoyment was raising over $3000 in sponsorship money for the kids. I had my own table, situated near the entrance, which had different sponsorship levels. An individual could buy 1 hour of tutoring for one child for $25, all the way to a college scholarship for $5000. It was amazing to realize that to keep one child in the program for one year costs roughly $1250 in the city of Dallas. The volunteer coordinator Carolyn was amazing she invited me to stay for the dinner, that was hosted by 102.9's Victoria Snee. I look forward to partnering with her as well as others to promote my platform on an even higher level this year!!

Jade Monfils Judges Oratorical Contest for Boys & Girls Club

I was asked if I would be able to be a guest judge for the Mesquite Boys and Girls Club's annual Oratorical contest in honor of black history month. There were 3 age divisions; 6-9 years old, 10-12 years old, and 13-15 years old. Many of the children recited memorized lines from the likes of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Nikki Giovanni just to name a few. While many of the children we nervous, I still give them credit for being able to get up in front of a large audience! There were 3 definite stand outs in each age division. They gave great introductions, maintained eye contact, and wonderful vocal projection while remembering each line word for word! At the end of the night I congratulated each contestant, and ate a wonderful spaghetti dinner provided by the club.

Jade Monfils at the Farmers Branch Bea's Kids Location

After partnering with Bea's Kids, an after-school tutoring center that provides a safe environment for students to go to when school gets out, I was inclined to attend another one of their locations in Farmers Branch. While there, I was in the 4th and 5th grade classroom helping them with homework. One young lady was having trouble with math (my favorite subject!) even though it has been years since doing storybook problems, it all started to come back to me! She shared with me her love of all things Hannah Montana! Once the younger ones left, I spoke with the high school students and helped them do a group crossword puzzle on U.S. Presidents (which was actually a lot harder than I you might think!). The young kids were so funny, they said "Please don't go to any of the other Bea's kids. We want to feel special because you only came here". I let them know that they were special anyway and gave them an autograph card to remember the day by. :)

Jade Monfils at the Chinese Lantern Festival

For Chinese New Year, this is the year of the ox. New Year in China lasts for weeks, as the whole country celebrates. Chinese citizens are given a month off with pay, and many factory workers that live at the factories, hours from their rural homes, go back to their towns to spend time with their families. This is actually one of the only times that workers get to go home during the year, so it is a huge deal. For the end of the New Year celebration a Lantern Festival is held, where people parade with lanterns through the streets. Dallas got to have a mini Lantern Festival that was held at the Crow Collection of Asian Art in the downtown arts district. Dallas has the largest arts district in the U.S. and the Crow Collection is an organization that I have been working with for years. What is really interesting about the Crow Collection is that it started out with Trammell and Margaret Crow who were collectors of Asian Art. With their first trip to Southeast Asia, Trammell Crow was hooked, they collected so many artifacts over the years that they decided to share it with the public. There is no charge to view the museum, the Crow family only wants to be able to share their love of Asian art with the public, which I think is wonderful! At the festival, I got to meet the owners of the current exhibit, that had flown into Dallas only for the day. Also there were a ton of crafts for the kids, they were making everything from lanterns to kites, and sampling sticky rice balls. Later on in the day, there was a dragon dance outside and a traditional Chinese dance in the gallery. It was a great day for the young and the young at heart!

Jade Monfils supports the Fresh Air Fund

I was contacted by Sara who works for the Fresh Air Fund, it is a not-for-profit organization that has been taking inner- city children from New York City to summer camp or to host suburban/rural homes for 130 years. I believe in this type of organization for the fact that they are giving 8,000 children a year an opportunity to see how it is outside the city life, that otherwise they might not be able to see on their own. Kids these days need options and alternatives, so that they can be a positive benefit to society. If anyone would be interested in being a camp counselor or hosting a child for the summer please visit www.freshair.org, and if you would like to make a donation click on the links!