Tour de Cure Kick-off Party for the American Diabetes Association

I had the pleasure of participating as a “Celebrity Volunteer” at the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure Kick-off Party. The event was held at the Barclay’s Rock Center in Wilmington, Delaware (which by the way, is a great facility!) and was designed to encourage people to sign up for the ride. Joining me were some of my pageant sisters, Melissa Schulte-Mrs. Delmarva 2012, Carrie Bledsoe-Miss Delaware Galaxy 2012, Kate Godwin-World’s National Delaware Mrs., Heather McKinney-Miss Cape Henlopen 2012, and Kayla Godwin-Angel Miss Delmarva 2012.

Pageant Sisters

Team Jerseys

With the "Champion Jersey" for the participant who raises the most money for the Tour de Cure

 The Tour de Cure is a bike ride that offers 10, 32, and 64 mile routes and all the riders raise proceeds to benefit the American Diabetes Association. They also have Team Red as part of this event, which allow riders with diabetes to participate in the ride and show the courage they have to live everyday with this challenging disease.  

Slideshow

With Melissa Schulte-Mrs. Delmarva 2012

With Carrie Bledsoe-Miss Delaware Galaxy 2012

Heather McKinney-Miss Cape Henlopen 2012, Carrie & I

Red, White, & Blue!

All of us with last years Top fundraiser

The kick-off party had a great Chinese auction with tons of great prizes, including restaurant gift certificates, Blue Rocks tickets, and the grand prize…a brand new bike! We had a great time encouraging people to buy raffle tickets and meeting all the riders and potential riders. We also helped out with drawing the raffle tickets at the end of the night. I also met a brave little girl, Morgan, who has lived with Type 1 diabetes her whole life. Her story was shared in a beautiful slideshow presentation and she sang a couple of songs during the party. She is a true hero in my eyes!

Carrie, Melissa and I with Morgan

And the most exciting part is that I am going to be participating in the Tour de Cure as a Virtual Rider!! The date of the ride is the same as the Mrs. Delaware United States pageant, May 12^th, so unfortunately I cannot be there. However, I still wanted to contribute, so all of us pageant sisters formed a team: “Team Diabeauties”. I am excited to raise money to be donated to the American Diabetes Association and virtually ride that day! I will be posting soon on how you can donate and help our team make a great contribution towards fighting diabetes.

Signing up as a Virtual Rider

Team Captain of Diabeauties

I would like to give a huge thank you to Carl Colantuono, the director of the Tour de Cure, for allowing us to be part of this great event. We look forward to working with you in the future!

Us with Carl Colantuono

I have a super busy and fun weekend planned with great volunteer activities, so stay tuned!

Photo courtesy of John Schulte

Until next time,

Melissa Kirk

Mrs. New Castle County United States 2012