A Weekend of Heroes - September 10-11, 2010

“I come here today not just as First Lady, on behalf of my husband and a grateful nation. I come as an American, filled with a sense of awe at the heroism of my fellow citizens. I come as a wife, a daughter, and a sister, heartbroken at the loss so many of you have endured. And I come as a mother, thinking about what my daughters, and what all of our sons and daughters, can learn from the 40 men and women whose memories we honor today.” –Michelle Obama, Septmber 11, 2010

September 11^th will forever be remembered for the heroes that lost their lives at the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Washington D.C., and Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

This past weekend was about heroes, and I had the opportunity to meet some myself—both big and small. Friday night was the Brookville Volunteer Fire Department’s 101^st Anniversary Celebration. As soon as I got there, one of the volunteers ran out from behind his milkshake booth—camera in hand—and darted over to greet me with a hug. He was so excited that he could barely get the words out to ask me for a picture. I could not believe how thrilled he was to finally meet a Miss Pennsylvania! It was such a special moment, and the rest of the night was no different.

One of the perks of being Miss Pennsylvania is the plethora of free food that you get when you go to events—especially fairs and festivals. The vendors feel that if people see MISS PENNSYLVANIA eating their pizza, french fries, cotton candy, etc. then the general public will want to go to that particular vendor for the food. In other words, they want me to be a walking advertisement. Which is great and all, because there is no doubt that I LOVE to eat, but the cotton candy that I was given is not exactly in the “swimsuit-friendly” category. I believe I had—no joke—the world’s largest cotton candy ball that evening. But my goodness was it D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

Later that night, I performed a couple of fiddle tunes on the grandstand and had the extraordinary opportunity to play a song with Pork McElhinny—a hometown country music star. We played “Let the Circle Be Unbroken” and during the song Pork turned to me and said, “Hit it, Courtney!” and I broke down on my fiddle and had my very own solo!!

The volunteer firefighters at the event were so kind and friendly. I spent the evening with them listening to their stories and experiences about firefighting and was so happy that I could spend the September 11^th weekend at such a remarkable event!

The next morning I drove from my hometown in Sigel to Philadelphia to be a part of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia CMN Radiothon. This will go down as the most fun, emotional, and humbling appearance of my entire year. The children at that hospital are truly heroes. It was such a perfect, Fall Saturday and these kids were fixed to their beds and wheelchairs—unable to enjoy the weather outside. I shared the day with Andrea Helfrich, Miss Philadelphia 2010, and we both left the event feeling so touched by all of the children we met. Their positive attitudes made me realize how much I take for granted and how often I should count my blessings. Vikram, Brandon, Alexander, Sarah, and Delaney were a few of the children that I met that day and they are all heroes—heroes that I look up to for their strength and determination.

I really hope that I have another opportunity to revisit CHOP to see them all again. I will never understand why these children were chosen to have to go through life with such painful diseases, but we can certainly be taught a lesson from their strength of mind and fortitude.

I hope that you all have an excellent start to the Fall season! Thank you so much for following along and don’t forget to “Like” the new Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Organization fan page on Facebook!

Until next time…

With Love,

Courtney Thomas

Miss Pennsylvania 2010