Jade Monfils at "Circus Day" for Isabel's Community Outreach

This past weekend I was able to take part in "Circus Day" at Isabel's Community Outreach in East Plano. The circus themed day had a raffle, face painting, cotton candy, and games. I was honored to have my own autograph table, and was touched when I was told some of the little girls came specifically that day to see me and dressed in their best! What is great about Isabel's program is that she started it 4 years ago for the Hispanic community, many of these women were uneducated and coming from abused relationships, the outreach program teaches them skills that they need to be able to survive on their own. The program has now grown to include men, and children from all different backgrounds. This very special circus day was a day for all of the students and their children to forget about their problems for one day and just have fun! I am so proud of all the women in the program, especially those that are now moving on to college to further their education!

Jade Monfils at the Easter Egg Hunt

One of the best things that I remember as a child during Easter was of course the Egg Hunt!! I got to help out with the Dallas Arboretum's Easter Egg Hunt. There were children from babies to 9 years old, all there with one mission......... to get the most eggs! The morning started off with arts and crafts, breakfast, and then I got to start the egg hunt. It was a great setting with all the flowers to set the mood for Spring!

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!

Miss & Mrs. Dallas in the Dallas MLK Parade

I was introduced to Mrs. Dallas 2009, Lee Pettyjohn. We will both be competing in the Texas International Pageant in March, in San Antonio. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., one of the parades was held in Dallas. The day started out so cold, but as we gained momentum it began to warm up! It started at Dallas City Hall, and ran to MLK blvd. in downtown. This was the first parade that I have made an appearance in, and it was so exciting seeing all the smiling faces out to celebrate the birthday of such a historic figure. In addition to the presidential inauguration, the feeling of joy was definitely a presence in the streets of Dallas!

Jade Monfils Guest Speaker for Bea's Kids

Bea's Kids after school program gives young kids tutoring and a safe place to be during the peak hours of violent juvenile crime (between 3:00-6:00 pm). Once a month the North Dallas chapter invites a key speaker to talk to the youth as a "Wednesday's Winner". I was honored to be the January speaker, and talked to the kids about my "path to success" and the importance of education and staying in school. I also talked about setting goals and believing in yourself. When I got there everyone was writing a letter to President Obama, and what they wanted to see him change. The kids there ranged from 1st grade through high school juniors. There were several volunteers there helping them with their homework which ranged from math to writing. Helping kids become positive impacts on our future is something that I am so passionate about, which is why it was so rewarding for me to speak to these children and share with them my experiences!

Jade Monfils at the Christmas Angel Project 2008

Christmas is more a time of giving than receiving, and I spent the holiday with the Dallas Soup Mobile. Which is an organization that I have previously worked with. All throughout the year the "Soup Man" David Timothy, takes the Soup Mobile van around the streets of Dallas and feeds the homeless. December 24th and 25th was the Soup Mobile's Christmas Angel Project, which took 450 homeless off the streets, and put them up at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. Where each person got their own room to rest in and shower. They were feed 3 meals in the banquet room, and were given new clothes (all donations from companies). My role at the event was during Christmas dinner, I greeted the guests as they arrived and introduced the Chairman of the Christmas Angel Project. A lot of people usually just disregard the homeless, but they are people who are just down on their luck for the moment. They are working to get back on their feet, and the holidays are a supposed to be a time of celebration and not despair. I saw many familiar faces from the Dallas Day Out event at City Hall back in October. Many of the homeless actually remembered me from that event, I joked with some of them when the others were saying "How does she know you?" that "Oh yea, we go way back". Being at this event for me was the true spirit of the holidays, and I am so glad that I got to meet everyone. Here is another clip of the days events online:

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/local_state/index.html?nvid=316198&shu=1

Jade Monfils at the Garland Asian Festival

I love cultural events, you get to learn about other countries and customs. Being mixed with Filipino, Chinese, French, and Indonesian. I have spent time getting to know all the unique cultures that make me who I am today. I was able to emcee the Garland Asian Festival that was held at the Saigon Mall. There were performances from the cultures of China, Japan, India, Vietnam, Philippines, Hawaii, Thailand, and Cambodia, just to name a few. It was a colorful day with many talented people that taught others about each individual culture and what makes each different. There were different booths set up for the children that had fun things like face painting, and other food booths that had snacks from many different countries. Several different awards were presented to many community leaders that have helped the Asian community here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I was even honored to get an award myself!

Jade Monfils emcees at the Philippine Physician Fundraiser

I haven't been able to update my blog for a little while, but I recently emceed a fundraiser that was very important to me. I had the chance to go to the Philippines last Christmas, and it was the 1st time that I had visited. A lot of time when people vacation, they spend most of their time at resort areas and don't go out to see how the people of the area actually live. I spent my Christmas last year in the provinces, all the people were so welcoming and sweet. But at the same time these people don't have a lot and being there made me feel so blessed about my life here in the US. Also in the city when I visited Manila, there are children that don't even have homes. I could go on and on about this...... I decided there that one of my goals was to do something to be able to help people overseas. It is not like here in the US, where everyone has an opportunity to change what happens to them in the future, most people who live in poverty have no choice and no opportunity. Even though I am here, I was able to help raise money at a fundraiser, whose profits all go to the Philippines. These funds help to provide medical assistance to people who otherwise could not afford medical care. It was a casino night and chips were purchased, at the end of the night all players were able to purchase prizes that were donated. It was a fun night as well, and even more rewarding that all proceed went to such a worthy cause!!

Jade Monfils at the Dallas Asian Chamber of Commerce Award Luncheon

The Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce had an awards ceremony at the Doubletree Hotel Downtown. This is a yearly event that honors prestigeous Asian Americans and organizations that play a significant role in the Dallas Asian community. Sylvia Komatsu, an executive at KERA was the MC. My role at the event was to present the awards to the recipients. The guest speaker was Roger Staubach, Dallas Cowboy Hall of Famer, was the guest speaker. It was an honor to be surrounded by so many successful Asian Americans in the Dallas community!

Jade Monfils at BBBS Black Tie Ball

Saturday evening was the Black Tie Ball at the Hilton Anatole, benefiting the the Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas. There was an auction of wonderful donations which even included tickets to the Presidential Inauguration next year, and a party with Elton John. All the proceeds will go toward taking children off of the BBBS waiting list and matching them with a mentor for one year. I had the opportunity to greet the guest as they entered the hotel and direct them to the event, surprisingly there were 4 different black tie events in the same night! I got the chance to talk and mingle and meet several other individuals with some of the same aspirations as myself, to work within the community and provide positive outlets for our youth. There was an artist doing sketches of the guests and I even got my portrait drawn. During the night there were several performances by "littles" which ranged from a trumpet performance, dancing, and an opera performance accompanied with a piano, which was AMAZING and got a standing ovation. This group of children was so talented and an inspiration, in that they can overcome their situations and find their own niche in life. I was honored to be able to help raise money for such a worthy cause.

Jade Monfils at Bea's Kids Benefit Gala

Saturday night there was a benefit gala/auction for an organization known as Bea's Kids. The organization was started by Bea Salazar 18 years ago. She was a disabled single mother of 5, and was barely making ends meet, when one day she went out to throw her garbage away. At the dumpster she found a young boy digging through the trash. Since it was summer time, he was not in school; therefore not getting the breakfast and lunch served there. He was hungry, but Bea threw the piece of bread that he had found back in the trash, and he began to cry. Since she was new to the apartment complex she didn't want her neighbors to think that she was hurting the boy, so she took him home and made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After he left there were 6 more children that came knocking at her door, asking for food. She thought that once school started the children would stop coming. She was wrong, once school started she continued to get kids asking for help with their homework. This was mostly due to the English language barrier that the children had at their own homes. Bea took the initiative and asked her apartment complex to donate an empty apartment to start a safe after-school program. She went to the local high school and asked the Honor Society students if they could tutor these children. What she did many years ago, lives on today. She has 4 after-school centers in the Dallas area, a school named after her, and has been honored by Oprah, President George Bush, and President Bill Clinton. She is an inspiration and I was so honored to meet her and help with the fundraiser for her organization. I had the opportunity to meet several volunteers, and board members at the event which was held at CityPlace downtown. It was a rewarding night, and I am glad that I was able to raise money for this wonderful cause!

Jade Monfils at Dallas Day Out

This weekend was Dallas Family Day Out at Dallas City Hall. This event is in part with the National Night Out campaign, which reinforces safety and crime prevention in Dallas. I served as the host for the day, and had the opportunity to meet several wonderful individuals. The day started out with a fashion show put on by Skyline High School's Fashion Marketing class. All the clothes were sponsored by Target. Since I am in the fashion industry, I love being able to see younger fashion students pursuing their dreams. I had a chance to talk to them and some of their parents- I love making new fashion friends!! Another big sponsor was State Farm- both sponsors were giving away items such as IPods, cameras, and $250 gas cards each hour which was exciting. All throughout the day their was an array of talented musicians from the DFW area. Here I am with the band Phoenix Heart. Another wonderful and accomplished woman that I had the opportunity to meet was Dr. Elba Garcia who is the Mayor Pro Tem and also Dallas City Council Woman over District 1. She was so well spoken and an inspiration as a successful community leader. I had a very exciting day, and the costumed characters added to the enjoyment!

Dress for Success

Another one of my favorite organizations is Dress for Success. I had the opportunity to meet a woman named Debbie a little over a year ago through it. I had not seen her in a while and last night I met up with her at the Galleria. We talked about how our lives have changed with in the past couple of months, and plans for the future. Just spending a typical girl's night out while window shopping. Here at the Galleria they were getting ready for the big Texas/OU game this weekend, and decorated the ice rink. It is very rewarding to know that you have the power to make a positive change in someone's life. I only see good things for her in the future!!

Jade Monfils judges the Van Oil Pageant

This weekend I traveled to the town of Van, which is a town east of Dallas in between Canton and Tyler, Texas. The pageant started at 9:00 am with little babies and progressed into the afternoon with the teens. Since Van is such a small town, this event is the largest fundraiser for the Van Chamber of Commerce. Here I am with the pageant coordinator Andrea Walker, and the chamber president John Barker. Once I got there I was excited to see Shannon McAnally (America's Perfect Miss) and the director Miss Shirley. I have competed with her before and was so happy when I found out she won the national title. It is so exciting to see all of the cute little children, it was so hard to be a judge! Not only are these little girls beautiful, but they all had poise and did exciting talents as well. The winner did a ballet dance, while the talent winner sang with an amazing voice. Here I am with a future "Pop Star"- her career ambition just might come true. She sure has the moves! I got to converse with many different people all day. In the Miss Division- the Oil Queen is the one who will be recognized all through Van and get to appear in the town's festival and parade October 25th. Here I am with last year's Oil Queen Brittany Cotton. For lunch Andrea took us to a delicious Mexican restaurant Patron's. We had a good time getting to learn all about each other and our different stories. I met alot of people and that is what being a pageant titleholder is really about!