More Easter celebrations... with little sister, Kate!

While I loved celebrating Easter early with hundred of children at the Easter egg hunt, there were two children in my life that I wanted to be sure had more candy and eggs than they knew what to do with. While visiting family in Columbia, I was able to visit with my Miss Missouri little sister, Kate Linnemeyer, and her little brother, Ben. As I've mentioned before, Kate has grown up before my eyes over the past four years. She has changed so much, grown so much, and matured so much. But not having seen him for 2 years, Ben took me by surprise. So much so that when he and Kate's grandmother (whom I had never met) answered the door, I assumed I had knocked on the wrong house!! Kara and Scott, Kate and Ben's parents, are more than blessed to have such gorgeous and wonderful children.

I had a wonderful time playing with my two good friends while sharing the Easter baskets and candy that I had brought them as well as what they were doing in school and extracurricularly. Kate had finished her first year playing basketball, had her first softball game this past weekend, will have her dance recital next weekend, and she will be starting golf this summer. So excited to see what she does with all her talents! She did share her dream career: Kate would love to be a fashion designer. She promised that after she designs a yellow and black outfit for her mother, she will design one for me. :-) Overall, it was a wonderful visit and I cherished catching up with her and Ben.

Don't you love the necklace she made me!

Getting ready for Easter... or Pascua de Domingo.

This boy was so sweet!

Hola! Como estas? Gracias! ... Yep, that is the extent of my Spanish language knowledge. Well, maybe I know a few more phrases, but I learned quickly this weekend that I do not know enough to get through a Spanish radio interview or to ask kids if they would like to take a picture with me. Yet, I learned that in any language, Easter Egg Hunts are an absolute blast and a great way to celebrate Easter, a weekend early! :-)

This brother was so precious as he shared their morning spent cleaning his sister's white dress after she spilled her hot chocolate on it. Their family's love was too heart-warming (and who hasn't had a morning wearing white when something wasn't spilled on it)!

Trying to cheer up a little boy after he tripped running to the CMNH booth. His facial expression is so serious I want to caption this, "hmmmm, let me think if I want a signed picture of this crazy lady."

I loved crowning so many princesses!

Sponsored by the Spanish-only radio station in Kansas City, La Super X 1250AM, the Great Mall of the Great Plains hosted a "gran fiesta" for Easter, including egg hunts, pictures with the Easter Bunny, and fun booths representing local businesses around the KC metro. Kari Gai, Miss Mid-Missouri, and I were there with other volunteers to represent the CMNH (Children's Miracle Network Hospitals) booth where we had fun, temporary tattoos and tiaras for the kids to wear while taking a picture with us. Our group used this opportunity to pass out fliers for CMNH, written in Spanish, and to inform those that spoke English of the services that CMNH provides for local children's hospitals such as Children's Mercy and KU Medical Center. These fliers were invaluable considering we had no translator with us. I was even approached by the La Super X DJ, while he was on the air, and had to respond to his questions in English because I didn't know how to say "Miss Gateway to the West" in Spanish! At first shocked and taken aback that I didn't respond in Spanish, he laughed and reassured me he would translate for me to his listening audience. But, needless to say, my Spanish radio interview was only a few sentences long in which I stated my name, my title, and what CMNH was promoting. New goal: expand some conversational Spanish. Rosetta Stone... here I come!

It was so wonderful having Kari there! I miss you, girl!

As I walked up and down the line of eagerly excited kiddos and their parents waiting for their turn in the egg hunt, I got the opportunity to make some new friends and hear about how many eggs they wanted to find. Although I couldn't communicate with every family, I learned that hugs and high-fives are ways to show love to any one (especially if you have a crown on your head). :-) Also amazing, even though my Spanish/English hybrid explanation of CMNH was terrible and choppy, people still gave donations to the organization. Clearly, caring for children and supporting our local hospitals transcends language barriers as well!

Thank you to Erin Manning and Lyn Harris from KC-CMNH for inviting me to the event. Thank you, Mom, again, and always, for coming with me to take pictures (and insisting that we go shopping afterward). :-)

Going back to first grade...

You know, I always thank God that I am in school learning to do what I love. I realize I am very blessed to have a plan and direction for my life considering I am so young....

That said, after my visit with English Landing Elementary School, I wish I could go back to first grade!

Yesterday, I was invited to speak to all 80 first graders about "How to be Healthy." Teaching them the importance of "that 'v' word.... vitamins!", exercise, and saying no to drugs, has easily been one of the highlights of being Miss Gateway to the West! I loved hearing their ideas about how they were going to play outside to get their exercise, and which of their favorite foods fit into what category of the food pyramid. Since we had a little time left over, I brought out my stethoscope and expiratory meter to test "how healthy their heart and lungs are."

This boy was too cute! "I hear it, it goes lub-dub, lub-dub!"

Let me tell you, these kiddos are smart! At the end of my presentation, I gave a quiz about what was important. These kids can tell you why you need Vitamin A, where Calcium goes in your body, and ways to make your heart, lungs, muscles, and bones healthy. They also learned the "doctor" word for breads and sugars: carbohydrates. I was so impressed by how much information they soaked up!

High-fives for being superstar learners!

Ok, enough gushing. But needless to say, I cannot wait to go back to first grade again and visit my new friends :-)

Mrs. Weyer's first grade class, one of four I visited with yesterday.

Thank you to Renee Weyer for inviting me to speak to English Landing Elementary's first graders. It was an absolute blast!

2011 UMKC Wellness Fair

After I finished sharing information about free clinics and our UMKC Wellness Fair with the callers from the Cover the Uninsured phone-a-thon (see previous post), I was geared up for the Saturday of service ahead of me! Every year, UMKC has a Wellness Fair. Started by nursing students a few years ago, this fair is a smorgasbord of information for Kansas City metro citizens. In one afternoon, you can have a full check-up, blood labs drawn, a physical done, get a nutrition plan, get your immunization shots, and get a voucher for healthy food options which you can redeem at the mobile food bank right outside the hospital. All these services are 100% free. How? By the amazing support of local Kansas City businesses and branch offices that donate supplies and about 150 volunteers from the UMKC Nursing, Pharmacy, Dental, and Medical Schools.

Playing Simon says with the kiddos is a fun way to assess their strength and range of motion :-)  And make me look a little silly.

This year, the medical students and I were assigned to sports physicals and check-ups. Over 180 grade schoolers, middle schoolers, and high schoolers came in to get their annual sports physical. These physicals are required by the Missouri Board of Athletics for the students to participate in school and summer sports. For those kids who don't have insurance, this may be the only physical or doctors visit they get for the whole year. So, we do a complete comprehensive check up on them and provide them and their parents with their medical records, in case of emergency. While these children don't have the opportunity for consistent doctor's visits, through our Wellness Fair, we are providing them the screening needed for early identification of problems. Or how I like to think of it, we are giving them the preventative medicine that they need. For 5 hours of being open, 18 medical students saw 187 kids. It was a full day's work! But, well worth it! Who knows; maybe I just gave a physical to a future Lebron James! It's great to think that not only are we opening up health care opportunities to these kids, but opening up extracurricular opportunities for them (and maybe a possible career). That's neat to think about. :-)

Future sports star???

Thanks to all the students who volunteered, and Rini for helping our professors plan everything! Also, Thank you, Bob, for taking such great pics!

How not to fall between the Health Care cracks!

My medical school, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), does a wonderful job of making sure that no one falls between the cracks when it comes to health care. What does that mean? I am talking about the hundreds of thousands of people who don't qualify for health insurance and don't have the means to pay for regular doctor's visits. One way that UMKC accommodates these individuals is with Sojourner Free Health Clinic (if you want more info, or want to know what I've been doing there with my platform and my patients, see my previous post from October or another post from January). Recently, UMKC partnered with local news station in Kansas City, KSHB-41 to help reach out to individuals about Sojourner and other similar resources.

No matter where you stand on the Health Care Reform bill, I think we all can agree that if someone has an ear ache, a broken ankle, or found a lump or odd mole, that they should be able to have access to a doctor to help them. Unfortunately, many of these individuals don't have insurance and can't get into an outpatient clinic due to inability to pay. Instead, they visit the ER, costing 80% more to the hospital than necessary. Not only are free clinics helping cover those who have no insurance, but also facilities like Sojourner are helping fill in the gaps (or cracks, as they were) in insurance. For instance, Medicare often does not cover dental or vision insurance, creating a large crack in individuals' health care. Question is... how can we make sure everyone has an opportunity to seal these cracks?

Last week, local Kansas city TV station KSHB-41 and a few students from UMKC hosted the Cover the Uninsured phone-a-thon to provide information about local clinics that offer free or reduced rate services, how to get insurance, and promoted the annual UMKC Wellness Fair (more to come about this event in next post). For 2 1/2 hours, channel 41 advertised our phone number at the bottom of their broadcast screen, and 15 volunteers were able to assist over 700 individuals on how to get the care they needed, at no additional cost to KC hospitals and with limited or no insurance. It was an absolute blessing being able to help so many of my neighbors take control of their health, instead of having their health control them!

If you want more info on these clinics or how to get insurance or what the Health Care Reform bill means for you, shoot me an email! Whether you're a caller from last week, or a Miss Mo titleholder, everyone can grab hold of their health! No one has to fall through the cracks.

CMNH Change Crusaders! How pennies add up to hundreds

Sniff sniff sniff... you smell that? I think it is finally spring here in Missouri! Hurray!!

Last week, before this gorgeous warm weather, was the annual CMNH (Children's Miracle Network Hospitals) Change Crusaders radiothon. (Still don't know who CMNH is? Check out my other blog post for more info!) Hundreds of volunteers throughout Kansas City metro stood at street corners to collect change from passing drivers. I had a wonderful time doing this event two years ago when I was Miss Greater Kansas City, and I had just as good of a time this year. Although some members of my originally enlisted 4-person team were sick and had to skip this event, I was blessed to have my mom keep me company and help me shout, "Make a miracle; every penny counts."

And more than ever did I learn that every penny really DOES count. When driving to the radio station after we had collected from our street corner, mom asked me how much she think we raised. "Maybe, $50," I told her. How much could you really raise from a couple bucks here and there and a whole lot of pennies (you know, the ones that are in your cup holder that you never, ever find a use for, but never get moved because what if you need that change some day... those pennies). But on our arrival to the station, we had the pleasure of finding out on air that we raised over $120!! ($122.86 to be exact)

Our massive haul got me thinking, it really is the small donations or small movements toward change that help make a difference. With our money, CMNH was able to buy almost 700 diapers for premature neonates, pay for 2 x-rays, or provide 20 teddy bears or blankets for the kids who have to spend the night in the hospital alone. Later that night, we found out the total raised by the radiothon was $387,000, $900 of that total coming from street corners. Cheesy, maybe; cliche, definitely. But maybe it takes standing on the street corner collecting change from cars for a great charity to help you realize that even those forgotten, cup holder pennies can improve a person's life.
Thank you to Lyn Harris at CMNH-KC for contacting me about the event. And again, thanks, Mom, for taking pics and keeping me company in the 20 degree weather. :-)