Special Olympics Banquet (Creativity for a Cure)

www.gcdss.org is where you can find out how to help those with Down Syndrome












During the holidays, the Saint Martin High School Life Skills class had a holiday banquet. It was an honor to be invited!

The children were given presents by theirs teachers and feasted on an assortment of foods.

While I was there, one of the attendees named Hope began to show me a calendar she was featured in. The proceeds of this calendar go to help people with down syndrome, and all of the models in the calendar are children with down syndrome. It was a fantastic calendar, and I am so happy I can now show you the back of it so you can log on to their website and check it out!

Be blessed, everyone!
Capri Abdo
Miss Mississippi 2009-2010

Special Olympics Dance (Creativity for a Cure)

Oh my goodness! Hello, everyone!

Recently, I attended a Special Olympics Dance; this was not only one of the most amazing experiences of my life, but it was also a blast!

Children with special needs as well as adults attended this event which was located at Graffit's in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

The night was filled with laughter, dancing, pizza, and GRAFFITI! As you may already know, my platform, Creativity for a Cure, seeks to help children with illnesses through creative, artistic ways!

What a better, creative way to do this than by dancing and also drawing!? The kids had a blast! Graffiti's is called Graffiti's because as you enter the building you are allowed to grab a pen, and draw on the walls!

I asked the children what they would like to have drawn on the wall, it was a blast drawing so many pictures on the walls of this place!

We also had a wonderful time dancing on the dance floor! I will never forget this night! I highly encourage everyone to volunteer at a Special Olympics dance; you will not regret it!! :)

Abundant Blessings,
Capri Abdo
Miss Mississippi 2009-2010

Ocean Springs Bridge Walk for Loaves and Fishes and Boys and Girls Club! Over $5,000.00 raised!! :)

Ocean Springs Bridge Walk

Hey you guys!


Great news! Over $5,000.00 has been donated to the Boys and Girls Club and Loaves and Fishes due to the Ocean Springs, Mississippi Bridge Walk! The walk went great! Tons of people were there to walk the Ocean Springs Bridge in support of this event!

According to the Boys and Girls Club, their mission is:

"To enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.

A Boys & Girls Club Provides

A safe place to learn and grow...

Ongoing relationships with caring, adult professionals...

Life-enhancing programs and character development experiences...

Hope and opportunity."


As written on the Loaves and Fishes website, their mission is: "to enrich the lives of seniors and assist them in maintaining independence by making nutritious food, social contacts, and other resources accessible. To the extent possible we will also serve disabled and institutionalized individuals."


I am so happy we were able to help these organizations bless the lives of so many individuals!!

Crafts for a Cure- "Children with needs helping other children with needs!" :)

Crafts for a Cure- Part of my platform CREATIVITY for A CURE, is Crafts for a Cure. Crafts for a Cure is where children with special-needs are met in their learning facility and helped with making bracelets for pediatric cancer patients!

The message of this program is, "Children with needs helping other children with needs."

I had an absolute blast doing this; the kids were so creative, and the children who were given the bracelets loved them!

Bracelets are symbolic for pediatric cancer patients because in a way it gives them a feeling of someone holding their hand every step of the way!

The bracelets the students made have positive words on them such as: Faith, Love, Hope, Smile, etc. :)

If you would like to start something like this, or would like information on how to help, please let me know! (MissMS2009@aim.com) :)

Ps. I will post pictures asap!

Abundant Blessings,
Capri Abdo
Miss Mississippi 2009-2010

Cut off that Pony Tail! :) (for cancer patients)

WAVING GOODBYE TO MY HAIR



GETTING IT CUT OFF

PONY TAIL TO BE DONATED

I woke up the other day with a head full of hair... hair that will grow back quickly. I began thinking, "There are children who are going through treatments to save their lives which make them lose their hair; my hair will grow back. Cut it off for them, Capri!" I did just that.

I will be honest, it was not easy for me to do at first, but after thinking about it I realized that these children do not have a choice. I began to feel better as I realized that my hair can help make a wig for them which will make them happy. Happiness makes people either stress free or less stressed. Not having stress leads to a healthier, longer life; therefore, donating hair truly will help in many ways!

I began to raise awareness about this on my facebook, and am so excited to say that within a few short days people donated about a dozen pony tails!! There are other people growing their hair out to donate! I am so excited!

If you would like to donate, please let me know! (MissMS2009@aim.com)

Hair should not have been bleached, and should be about six to eight inches long or longer; HOWEVER, some places can use shorter hair. Have hair cut off as a pony tail and placed in a bag. (If hair has bleached parts, usually they can sort out the parts which were bleached) If you have any questions please let me know! :)

Be blessed!
Capri Abdo
Miss Mississippi 2009-2010

Disability Fair

I'm sorry these blogs are so late! It has been very busy, but I am so happy to be back! SOOO... Early Feburary as part of Creativity for a Cure I was blessed with the opportunity to emcee the Disability Fair in Biloxi, Mississippi. This fair was for people with mental and physical disabilities. There was a huge raffle along with games, a moon walk, face painting, food, and more! I met so many wonderful people, and had a blast jumping in the moon walk with the kids!

Creativity for a Cure!

My name is Capri, and I feel so blessed to be your reigning Miss Mississippi!

I am a firm believer that giving is the best feeling in the world. In honor of Meaghan Meyers, I have started Creativity for a Cure which involves helping children with illnesses through artistic ways! A few of these wonderful projects include:

Crafts for a Cure- helping children with special needs make crafts for children with cancer; in essence, this project's touching message is, "Children with needs helping other children with needs."

Reach- a project similar to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America; however, volunteers are assigned a child with cancer and visit them on a weekly basis rather than the traditional holiday visits. I feel that these beautiful gifts of life need more to be excited about on a regular basis as opposed to only holidays. Volunteers do crafts and spend time with their assigned child. The process is life changing! Most of the crafts the children make are made for other children with diseases, the troops over seas, and impoverished children in other countries. (Reach has been put on hold until the H1N1 virus is not as prevalent.)


Additionally, I have added the famous Princess of the Year as one of these projects. Princess of the Year is a touching experience where a child with cancer is given a crown and made Princess of the Year. This was started by the Pink Heart Fund of Long Beach, MS, and I have adopted it into Creativity for a Cure! We recently crowned a little girl "Princess of the Year" who has been battling cancer since she was a child; she is currently in remission. To surprise her, we picked her and her family up in a limo, and ate at a nice restaurant. When arriving at the restaurant, media was there to record her beautiful experience! As she got out of the limo I crowned her "Princess of the Year!" This beautiful little girl will be getting many "royal treatments" throughout the year. My photographer agreed to give her a free photoshoot, and many more wonderful things are in store!! :) (The limo ride, dinner, and gift certificates were all donated; the community really came together!) If you would like to donate anything to make her year more princesslike, please let me know! :D (I will be helping out with Princess of the Year annually!)



Some other things Creativity for a Cure has entailed has been volunteering, hosting, and emceeing at many special olympics events!!



These are only a few of the several things that entail Creativity for a Cure. I am also in the process of hand-painting hundreds of t-shirts. All proceeds will go to find the cure and benefit cancer patients. I will be sure to attach a link to the t-shirts when more are finished so they can be purchased.

If anyone would like any information about how to become involved; please feel free to contact me! It would be my pleasure to help in any way possible!

Remember, nothing can compare to the feeling of giving.

May you all be abundantly blessed and prosperous!

-Capri Abdo
Miss Mississippi 2009-2010