Day 4 PRELIM 1

Wow I'm late on this blog. It was my birthday on Wednesday and I want to say thank you so much to everyone that wished me a happy birthday. It was AMAZING!!!! I was surprised on stage with cake and balloons and the entire audience sang happy birthday to me. Ill never forget that! My local director, Molly, gave me a remote controlled red corvette that had "MISS MN OT" on the front hood! It's so cute and I've been playing with it non-stop! (: The girls did wonderfully on stage and in interview, I'm so proud of all of them. I wish I could crown each of the girls! Well that's it for this one! Love you all! XOXO
~Corrina

Miss Minnesota Week day 5 prelim 2

Well it is very late, so unfortunately this blog will be very short. I started off the day with all of my local Outstanding Teens at the Lady Elegant's Tea Room. We had a "Teen's Tea!" Oh, it was so much fun! We wore hats, drank caramel flavored tea, had little sandwiches and scones. It was a bonding experience as well as a chance to go full on British! We took many pictures so look on Facebook as those get added.
Prelim night number 2-
Wow what a night! It's been fantastic and each and every girl has done beautifully. They are all such inspirations of mine and I look up to them in so many ways! I'm so glad and thankful that the Miss contestants have taken me on like a little sister! (: I love you girls and you will do amazing! Lets see how is crowned Miss Minnesota 2013, aka my new sister! XOXO love always and forever
-Corrina (:

Miss Minnesota Week Day 3

Today the Miss girls, Rachel and myself went to visit the Lillehei Heart Institute at the U of M campus. You know I didn't really know what to expect on this service day, but I am so glad I was able to be apart of the day. This is what the Lillehei Heart Institute is, this was taken directly from their website because I would not have explained it correctly. "The Lillehei Heart Institute is a premier clinical and basic science research institute focusing on cardiovascular genomics, heart development, heart regeneration, stem cell therapies, personalized medicine, heart failure, vascular biology, and device design to treat cardiovascular disease."
We got to go on a tour and we stopped into the lab. We got to experience a real angio plasty being performed on a patient who waved to us while her heart was being fixed! It was so weird, so cool, and so gross all at the same time! It was a very memorable experience that I will surely never forget. The doctor who performed the surgery took us all to his office and showed us pictures and explained everything in detail with what he had just done on the women. He also talked about the heart and all of the different heart functions and motions and oh my gosh it was unbelievably cool! (: just so EVERYONE(who's reading this)knows... it's my birthday in T-minus 1 hour and 10 minutes! Ah! Sweet 16! (: love you all!

Love forever and always,
Corrina Swiggum

Miss Minnesota Week Day 2(:

Yesterday the Miss Minnesota Scholarship Organization dedicated the entire day just to the Gillette Children's hospital, which is Minnesota's Children's Miracle Network hospital. We broke off into two groups, one went on a tour and one stayed behind in the waiting area for patients and family to wait for their appointments, and later we are switched spots. Although, my group of 11 girls stayed behind first with the families I'm going to talk about the tour we had the amazing opportunity to go on. We headed off right away down the halls with our tour guide; I never had the chance to ask her name. She pointed out different wings that housed children with all sorts of different a reasons. I learned that this hospital is a "60-bed hospital" which is, what it sounds like! It has 60 beds which means 60 patients stay there at a time. This hospital sees 25,000 patients a year, and with only 60 beds, they estimate that about 13,000 patients are in their out patient care system. We also went and visited the lab in which they make personalized casts, braces, wheel chair seats, and sometimes prosthetic limbs. That was very close to home with me because my father has a prosthetic leg, and I realized how blessed my father is to have only had a portion of his leg removed when some of these kids lose entire limbs, or are born without them! It's amazing how much care goes into these casts and braces. It makes the kids excited to wear the casts that they would have hated before. While the other group was on the tour, my group was able to decorate cookies with the families and it was SO much fun. Those kids love their frosting! I had the opportunity to connect with a lot of the mothers of the children while they stood their watching their sons and daughters. I did get the permission to talk about this family on my blog. I met the Richter family, and wow they really opened my eyes! Mrs. Richter is from here in the twin cities and when her daughter Natalie Richter was born with a very minor case of cerebral palsy. Natalie is still in elementary school, she attends regular classes at her school! She is a math class a grade above her, she's in the top of her class, and she reads at an extraordinary level. That just goes to show that just because you have a physical disability, it does not automatically mean you have a mental handicap as well. Natalie had a smile on her face the entire time, for the three hours that we visited with her. She's truly an inspiration and a reason to be happy! The rest of yesterday was rehearsal for the contestants and Rachel and I had time to relax!

Au Revoir jusqu'à demain!
(Goodbye until tomorrow)
-Corrina Marie Swiggum

Miss Minnesota week DAY ONE

Well I've decided that instead of blogging at the end of the week, I'm going to blog each night and of course after the week I will recap! (:
Today all of the Miss Minnesota contestants arrived at the hotel around 1:00 PM, and we got settled into our rooms!(: Our 5 "Quality of Life Award" finalists; Tiffany Buszta, Samantha Phillipi, Ali Vail, Drew Trahms, and Emily Kallis; went right into their private interviews with the judges! The rest of the young women and I went to the Minnesota Veteran's Home and spent about an hour and a half with Veterans and their families!! I sang the National Anthem, and Siri performed a breath taking dance, well I guess every dance of hers is breath taking, now that I think of it! I met some amazing men and women and actually an amazing therapy dog! It was truly a privilege to be invited to come to the home of these men and women!
After about an hour and a half of visiting we went back to our host hotel and got ready for the prelude to the crown event hosted by our hotel! A lot of former Miss Minnesotas came, along with the contestants and local directors! After an hour of socializing, Mackenzie and I trudged over to the airport to pick up none other than Miss America's Outstanding Teen herself, Rachel Wyatt!!!! She's an amazing young lady and I can't wait to spend the rest of the week with her!(: who's knows maybe she will crown me this upcoming August! Cross your fingers! (:
~Until Tomorrow,
Love Always and Forever,
Corrina(: