 Hi everyone, it's Yamuna Turco. You're Ms. Vermont 2023 and I'm back after a brief hiatus. There was basically a lot going on in my life in August. I moved back into college and I did kind of start working again and getting back into the swing of everything after a lovely two-week break for my Ms. Vermont duties. Today's show is not going to be an interview style. It's going to be me giving you a couple updates about Miss America stuff, talking about how to get in contact with me, but also my community service initiative, which I have talked about before, but there's been so much progress going on with it and I've been able to work with so many incredible partners since I last talked about it, that I wanted to kind of come back to it. So going right into my CSI, which is my community service initiative, if you remember from the first episode, it's One Book One Child, which focuses on encouraging and increasing access to diverse books and stories, especially ones that connect kids with stories very similar to their own, so they're able to relate, but also vastly different to their own, so they're able to see different perspectives and different reasonings behind maybe why people make the decisions they do or lead their lives in such a way. It's important to me because not only did my parents instill a love of reading and learning in me, but also I'm a first-generation American and they connected me with the stories from where they're from, which is my mom is from South Africa and my dad is from Italy and then they immigrated to the US, with stories from their countries and their cultures, but also helped me connect with the United States and the culture here that was so vastly different to theirs, but they were raising a child in it, so that's why I really want to encourage kids to read and I've been so fortunate to work with so many incredible community partners, like the Partnership for Literacy and Learning. I actually attended a networking event of theirs and was fortunate enough to be able to speak at it and meet so many people from school districts and bookstores and that has really led me into leaning more into this kind of work, which has been my whole idea for my year as Ms. Vermont so far, but being able to connect with people that I see doing the work makes it easier to build connections and really broaden my outreach. That does go into part of my next topic, which is donations and connecting with me. So, so far I have collected and donated over 300 books and that has come in the form of physical donations of books, but also in monetary donations, so if you would like to get in contact with me or if you've even seen me just out and about, if you ever see me in person, even if I'm not in the crown and the sash, which you might not recognize me because sometimes I think I'm a bit like Superman and Clark Kent in that aspect, but if you do, please feel free to come up to me and talk to me about it. But otherwise, towards the end of the presentation, I'll give my email and my Instagram because that is a huge way that I network with people and connect with people. Actually, I went to an elementary school recently and I met with their head of curriculum at this PLL event, but I'd also met with a different principle through Instagram because one of her teachers followed me. It was very random, but that's the way that these connections are built and fostered. So I would absolutely love to, you know, work with you, get your donations, also give you donations because that's the other part of my CSI. I go into schools and I go into libraries and into community centers and I donate these books or even moving forward, maybe be able to donate money directly donated to me to buy a specific kind of book. If a teacher needs a book to teach a specific lesson, that would be absolutely the dream. And speaking of my year as Ms. Vermont, next month will be six months as Ms. Vermont. I actually can't believe that it's been so long, but also so short. It feels like I've been doing this for an eternity, but also that I was crowned yesterday. So it's a weird little thing that's going on. So that will come next month, but next month also has a few other exciting things. First of all, Vermont Day is the 12th, the Vermont Day, it's on my slideshow. The Vermont Day is the 12th, and so I will be posting a ton about that because I'm Ms. Vermont. But also I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of other events going on and if there isn't, the leaves are changing, so it's a good excuse to go on a hike. In terms of other updates in October, October 10th is the date that the Miss America Opportunity will announce the official location and date-slash-dates of the Miss America competition. I'm hoping it's still in January because that was what we had originally been told. If not, it'll probably be in the new year. It's quite unlikely that it wouldn't be. And they have a couple of changes in terms of how the competition is also going to be organized. There are going to be, I believe, three nights of preliminaries, which is all the stuff before finals night. So your evening gown and your fitness and your talent and your on-stage question and then all the extra fun stuff you can do to win more scholarship money. So if you're a woman in STEM or a woman in healthcare or a woman who brands, if you own marketing or you're in business, those are things you can also do on prelims nights to win more scholarships. There is also something else they're planning on doing called Miss America's Got Talent, which is all the teen and the miss because the teen and the miss competitions are combined this year. They will be doing all of that on one night. So I believe it's about three hours of talent, probably broken up in half or into thirds, where you can see all 102 people competing, not together, like the miss and the teen are still separate, don't worry. But they will be competing all together as a kind of Miss America's Got Talent. So that's going to be very interesting. And that also goes with the fact that this Thursday, September 28th, I will be participating in the Miss America Lottery. Well, all the miss, our names are randomly selected. And then we get to pick our competition order. And this competition order is for interview and for talent. I'm not entirely sure if it's for the other categories yet, but I know what range I would like. I'm not allowed to tell you, but by the time I see you next, we'll know where Miss America is, we'll know when it is, and I'll know what order I'm competing in. So that's my Miss America updates. Not a ton, a lot of big things, but not a lot of super spread out things. By the time I talk on here next, I'm hoping to have more. Also a very special guest, but that's for next time. And then if you would like to talk to me about my CSI, or if you'd like to connect with me about it, or you have an idea of how I can even do better or help serve your school, community library, community center, would absolutely love to talk to you. My email will be on the screen. It is missvermont2023 at missvermont.org. Or you can just DM me on Instagram. I will also accept that. That's how I made a lot of younger people, which I kind of appreciate because I do check my Instagram more than my email. I'm trying to get better. That's Miss America VT. And my TikTok is also the same if you want. That's super unserious, but if you want to DM me on there, you can. And maybe even give me video ideas because I need help with TikTok. So yeah, that is the Miss Vermont voice for today. We'll be coming back next month starting interviews back up again. I'm hoping to schedule everything out. I have a few people lined up that I think you guys will really like. So that's all for me today. Have a great day.