Commitment important, Miss Kansas tells CES students
"What is important to you? What do you want to do best?"
That was the challenge Angelea Busby, the reigning Miss Kansas, posed Monday to Centre Elementary School students at Lost Springs.
She told them commitment to a goal can keep a person from abusing drugs and alcohol.
Her talk was interspersed with demonstrations of her twirling ability, keeping the children's interest and attention. She is a student at the University of Kansas and is the major twirler in the marching Jayhawks Band.
She said commitment requires hard work. She has been baton twirling since the age of three and still practices every day. Other goals she has reached include winning the pageant to become Miss Kansas, graduating from high school, and attending college.
She noted that drug use and alcohol abuse can lead to death, poor health, and trouble with authorities, preventing a person from reaching a goal.
She encouraged students to resist peer pressure.
"'No' is the most powerful word in the English language," she said. "There are many ways to say, 'No.'"
To reinforce that lesson, she asked the students several times to say in unison, "No!"
She ended her presentation with the baton twirling routine she gave in the talent competition at the Miss America contest. She was not a finalist, but she won the talent competition among the 40 non-finalists.
Centre Elementary School was Busby's third stop in her year-long reign as Miss Kansas. She is 22 years old and comes from Lenexa.
