At Thursday’s meeting of the Carmi Rotary club, the Rotarians were visited by local “royalty”. Miss Teen Illinois, Olivia Bohleber was the guest speaker, as she told the club about her recent win in the state contest.
She told the group that she had only competed in two small pageants prior to the Miss Teen Illinois event. Olivia told the group that one of her best friends had competed in that event for several years, and urged Olivia to join. She thought, “What’s the worst that can happen?” and jumped in.
Olivia explained that 55 girls from all over the state were present for the competition, which lasted a four days. The first round of the contest featured a round of active wear, a round of evening gowns, and an interview. After that round’s totals were added together, the group was narrowed to 15. A second round dropped the number to 5, and after another round of judging, the top five were ranked in order, with Olivia being named the winner.
Olivia went on to give a little background on herself. She is currently 15 years old, and a junior at Carmi-White County High School. She has a 4.0 GPA, and has maintained that amazing average since kindergarten! She is currently a cheerleader for the Bulldogs and a member of the track team. She is also active in FHA, and has completed over 500 hours of community service, mostly through her church.
She plans to spend her year as Miss Teen Illinois being very busy. She told the Rotarians that she is currently donating time to a charity called, “Operation Christmas Child”, which fills boxes with toys and ships them all over the world, to children who might otherwise not enjoy Christmas. She is also working with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, St. Jude’s, and the Ronald McDonald House. She also told the club that she plans to work closely with the Warriors for Ross foundation. This is a foundation dedicated to assisting children stricken with pediatric cancer.
Her next step in the world of pageants will be to represent Illinois in the Miss Teen USA pageant which will be held later this year.
In clubbusiness, Vice President Dwain Harrelson reminded the club about the upcoming Fall Trivia contest. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, November 5th at the American Legion on Oak Street. Teams need to have four members, and the cost per team is only forty dollars. There will be four rounds of ten questions each, and at the end of the night cash prizes will be awarded to the top three teams. The event kicks off at 6:00pm and should wrap up around 8:00pm.
Tom Logan won the 50/50 drawing but did not claim the day’s cash prize. Paul Schumaker was named as the day’s phantom. In other business, the club discussed having a chili supper sometime in November, but decided to hold that event off until December.
The Carmi Rotary club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this worldwide civic club is more than welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
Photo credit to Kenneth Dwain Harrelson
