Pilger is a small town that is located 100 miles outside Saskatoon Saskatchewan. With its small population hovering at just under 100 people, its a greart way to get to know everybody on a personal level, and share friendly hellos every day. This is what makes a small town feel like such a home. Every person is friendly, and loving. It makes everyone here feel like they are all part of the same family. 

Pilger Saskatchewan doesn't have any of the qualities that being in a city, or even a bigger town does, but it is full of its own unique things that make it special. Pilger is full of locally owned business from people in the town. There is an autobody that a man runs to help fix peoples cars in the area, and even a grocery store that is also a coffee shop for people to sit and share time with in the early mornings. The town also has a bar/restaurant owned by my mother where most famers come in after a long hard day to talk about crops, the weather, or even just local news. 

The Pilger Pumpkin Festival is a known festivity all around the area. People from all over come out to see all the huge pupmkins that local farmers, kids, and even just families, have grown over the year. Last year the largest pumpkin was 600 pounds! Its not every day you see one that big. The festival isn't just about the biggest pumkin though, it has baking contests that people enter with pumpkin as the ingredient and it has games and fire works. It a great place to come with your family just to hang out with the community and spend the night together. Pilger also has annual craft sales and street dances. The Pilger Tavern hosts street dances where theyhave a celebrity preformer in to have a concert. Its normally a older band, but everyone from hours away still comes down to see it. Harliquin, and Prisim have both been apart of the street dance, and all the guys loved having to get to see them live. 

Pilger is close by the town of Middle Lake, and here you can enjoy the nice camping grounds, and lake that it offers. All summer long the campsites are booked up, and you can always find people down at the lake swimming, or enjoying some icecream. They also hold a July First Celebration in the area. St. Benedict, Middle Lake, and Pilger, all team up to have baseball tournements where local people, and out of the area people all play. There is face painting for the kids, barbecues, and just everyone workign together to have a great day, and celebrate the countries birthday. 

The only school is in Middle Lake, and all the parents and kids team up to make the school the best place it can be. The people are full of school spirit for the local soccer teams, basketball teams, hockey teams, and every other sports team. You can often find the moms on the side lines with their faces painted in the crowd, cheering and chanting for their kids and all the other team mates. One of the cool things that Pilger has to offer is it memorial site. Here they have a model of the old school, and a writing about it. It has been there for 15 years, since the last school shut down. People out here also are crazy fans of the Saskatchewan Roughriders! People book a hall just so they can get together to watch the games together, in a good old community fassion. 

Pilger may be just a small town to people who drive threw it, but there is so much more to it then that. This isn`t just a small community, its a home. People here are all like family, helping out with each others farms, and everyone just supporting each other. A small town is such a wonderful place to grow up, and offers you a feeling of comforte and serenity. Thats why Pilger will always be my home!

-Cassandra Wojak

(pictures will come soon)

If I was the creative director for Free The Children and I had the opportunity to create a poster for global distribution, I would choose the above photo to be the main focus of the poster because To me it seems as though all the children are uniting and running towards the same goal. This picture represents diversity, happiness, and power. The children are not all the same age and I believe that is a positive image to feed into the world because many children in Canada and the rest of the world feel severely separated by age, gender, and race. This photo shows co-operation and a real life view into what conditions these children must face daily. I love the fact that the children are beneath their new school, and seem happy that they have been given this school. You can clearly see the joy and happiness beaming from the young childrens faces as they celebrate their new learning institute. This would be an amazing poster to be distributed around the world because it shows the excitement that the children would have to any potential sponsors. 

There are only Four days left until I leave! I am absolutely ecstatic and nervous to meet everyone and participate in all the wonderful events that I'm sure Michelle and her dedicated staff at MTC-W inc. Have arranged for us! The road to Miss Teen Canada was long, treacherous and thrilling, but now I am nearing the end of this roller-coaster ride of preparation and I must say, I am quite sad about it! This has been the best experience of my life, and I never want it to end. Thankfully, I still have a full week of fun filled events, appearances, and new friendships being discovered in all the girls. I am perfecting my talent right now which is singing somewhere over the rainbow in a dorothy costume, red pumps, and a little basket with my stuffed dog bruno (whom I have had since I was three). I have also been sponsored all my traveling money, and have had alot of success getting my dresses and hair discounted at an amazing amount. I would like to take this time to thank my sponsors, Perry Thompson Photography, Mr H. Ahn, Striga Ventures Limited, Marathon Integrators, Heartwood Inn, Glamis Resources and Colleaux Engineering for their amazing support and donations. I am so thankful for this opportunity, and I hope that it does not end soon [=

Stampede means alot to me because it brings the citizens of Calgary and outside of Calgary together. It encourages people to get out there and experience the culture of Calgary in the form of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth! It was an honor to be asked to serve free traditional canadian breakfast.. Pancakes and sausages.[= I participated in 3 pancake breakfasts, one to support the Salvation Army in Calgary, and two that raised money for the Firefighters Burn Treatment Center. I love to support charities and help raise money for good causes while sporting my crown and sash.. Or in this case cowboy hat and sash! 

Stampede breakfast number one! - Salvation Army

I arrived early in the day to a NorthWest location where there was a moon bounce, a hall where I got to serve breakfast to young children, happy elders, and representatives from the Salvation Army. It was a rewarding job being able to supervise the children playing on the moon bounce and helping the elderly pour their coffee

 but the highlight of my day, was when a little girl came up to me and asked me for my autograph. Being a "princess" and all I obliged gleefully! I love being a role model to children, and I love having kids look up to me like an older sister.

Stampede Breakfast number 2 & 3 - Firefighters Burn Treatment Center

I went to this event twice and did two different jobs, because i loved it so much! This event was deep in Calgary's jungle i.e. Downtown so it is usually very hard to find parking. We thought ahead and decided to take a bus down to the event. This was one of my first experiences on a bus. I know, quite pathetic being 14 and still new at busses, but there is a first time for everything. I must say, I like taking busses! You meet so many new and interesting people, it opened my eyes to how diverse Calgary really is! Once arriving upon my destination, I walked down the street to a long line of calgarians anxiously awaiting their pancakes and sausages, bragging about how much they were going to donate to this amazing cause. I was soon assigned an important job which was to spread the word about the firefighters burn treatment center, and tell people that the recommended donation is $3 but you can donate more or less or none at all! Many people had amazing conversations with me about my pageant, my title, my platform, my shoes and many other various topics. I was asked by many people to describe my experience, and I replied that it was an amazing character enhancing journey that had taught me valuable life lessons, morals and values. I enjoyed talking with the people who were donating their time and money to this charity. After I spent an hour and a half communicating with everyone, I was asked to go on stage and talk about my platform, my journey to Miss Teen Canada-World, and how to vote. I also then announced the singer who's name was Patrick Masse. The next day, I arrived on location feeling energized and ready for the challenges the day would surely hurl at me. The first thing that they asked me to do for the morning was station myself at a grill and make pancakes. Now, I have never made a decent pancake in my life. I have tried a multitude of times, but they just never seem to cook right. But I decided to try anyways. They had a large grill and a small device that measured the perfect  amount of pancake batter. even though some of my pancakes still came out uneven or quite burnt, the people were still quite gracious and kind about my slight lack of cooking skills. About an hour after I had been stationed at the grill, we heard the wail of fire truck sirens and everyone turned their concerned gaze towards the source of the sound. Thankfully no-one was in any danger, since it was just the firemen and firewomen coming to party with us! they pulled up in front of the scotiabank banner, and asked me for a picture with them! Of course, I happily obliged. One funny thing you may notice about this picture, is that every firefighter is taller than me! I was wearing heels, and flat footed I am 5'8", so all these firemen were about 6'0"! It surprised me how tall they all were, and so very kind also. I love stampede, and sadly it only comes once a year, but there are many more events to come! [=

On July 1st, I woke up early at around seven a.m., willing to get on the road to head into Airdrie, Alberta. With hot rollers in my hair and my crown and sash in tow, I was excited for the long day that lay out ahead of me. Once I reached my destination (After getting lost numerous times along the way) I was happy to see that there was more visiting royalty from Calgary in the form of Miss sun & Salsa, and the Sun Princess. I have done many events with these two girls, so I felt comfortable and content to be in Airdrie on this great day. I was shocked to see that there were people already vying for the best spots on the street at Eight a.m., when the actual parade didn't start until ten! Through all the excitement of being about to participate in what I soon figured out would be the talk of the town, I realized something. Every single other Royalty was on a horse other than Miss Sun & Salsa, The Sun Princess, and I! Now I have taken horseback riding classes in both Bareback and English, so I probably could've gotten hold of a horse in time for the parade if I had been forewarned. But since I love to look on the positive side of situations, I decided that it would be unique to walk without a horse, and figured that I could make some jokes about where my horse was when people asked. (I told them it ran away, which always seemed to make the crown roar with laughter) So I wholeheartedly embraced the opportunity. Since I was walking in the parade, I had no opportunity to take any pictures of the other girls and I in the parade, but I wish I had since there is no way to describe the happiness that radiates from the sea of red and white that was the crowd at the parade.

After the parade, we headed over to the Canada Day rodeo that was being held just outside Airdrie. I caught a ride with the Miss Rodeo Airdrie 2009 delegates who where being crowned at the rodeo later that day. I was surprised by the sheer amount of things that they had to do. One or two challenges a week to decide who should be crowned over the long span of a month! Hearing about all their journeys and adventures inspired me to strive for my best in whatever I do. This was the first rodeo I had ever been to, so I was nervous and unsure of what to expect. But the wonderful competitors and the current reigning Miss Rodeo Airdrie reassured me that the rodeo was all fun and games and that no animals were ever harmed. (Since I am quite an animal rights activist, I wanted to be sure that the rodeo did not contradict any of my morals.) I was still unsure when I reached the Rodeo, but once I saw some of the events, I was excited for what the rest of the rodeo consisted of and I was not let down. It was so amusing to watch young children chase around sheep trying to take off colored pieces of string from the sheep's necks in the Jr. Rodeo, that I found myself to be very comfortable with this new setting. This day held many surprises for me, one coming in the form of Danielle Fink, Miss Teen Airdrie - World from the Alberta pageant I partook in. Danielle and I grew close during the pageant, and it was wonderful to see her again in our sashes and crowns. We decided to take some pictures together, and I then invited her to come into the arena with me and announce our presence at the Rodeo in front of at least 1,000 people.
 It was so cool to see her again, and even better to have her explain all the Rodeo events in detail and re-assure me (repeatedly) that if an animal was hurt there would be severe consequences. We shared many laughs and happy memories together during this Canada Day. 

Another surprise that me and Danielle got to share together was that of dancing the Macarana and the Chicken Dance with the Miss Rodeao Aridrie 2009 Contestants, and the other visiting royalty in front of 1,000 or more people! We were ushered into the arena and told we would be dancing in front of the crowd! At first, i thought they were kidding, but then the realization hit that they were not joking when we were escorted into the ring together. I was wondering whether we would have to each do a dance, but when the chicken dance music started, I really got into it! I looked around and realized that thankfully it was not just the royalty that was dancing, but all the people were too! I laughed out loud and started dancing like no one was watching, which may not have been a good idea when people were obviously watching [= 

As I said previously, I love my country and I am a proud Canadian. I love the diversity of this country and the humanitarianism that clearly exists in the heart of every citizen. Being a public figure for Southern Alberta has given me the amazing opportunities that I used to only ever be able to dream about. I realized when I was dancing at the rodeo, that even the small things that come from this experience make it all worthwhile. The ability to make a difference in my community and the area surrounding my community has truly shaped me positively as an individual, and created new confidence that shines out of me. I love being a representative of the southern half of Alberta, and I am looking forward to participating in many more events. 

Being Brenna is a comedy/drama that explores the life of a struggling teen model. After her mother died in a tragic car accident, the odds suddenly turn in Brenna’s direction. She joins a modeling agency Elmer Olsen Model Management. As Brenna slowly rises into fame and fortune, she must not only deal with the constant pressure of being a teen idol, she must also deal with the many problems she encounters in her teenage life.

In the first episode, Brenna becomes very self conscious when she goes to a casting call and realizes that she is a little bit larger than all the other models surrounding her. She decides subconsciously to stop eating, in hopes to look a little more like the other models. Little does Brenna know, she was signed because she had a unique look. She faces a confrontation with herself and her best friend Ricky (whom has been her best guy friend since kindergarten) when he calls her out on having an eating disorder. Brenna and Ricky struggle to find a healthier way to manage her body weight, so Brenna enrolls in The Yorkville Club, a fitness center that makes her feel confident in herself.

In the second episode, Brenna realizes that she has fallen madly in love with her best friend Ricky when he accidentally kisses her at a party. Her world is once again tipped on its side as she embraces her newly found femininity by asking Ricky out. But before the date, Brenna realizes that she doesn’t know how to apply makeup! She wishes she had a female role model to help her with this new and challenging task, and desperately wishes that her mom hadn’t passed away and could see her little girl now. But the past is the past and Brenna decides to go shopping for makeup. Inside the maze of beauty products and campaigns that is Sephora, Brenna buys a complete set of makeup and goes home excited for the date. Alas, she applies too much and goes out looking like a clown. At the end of the date, Brenna fears that she has lost her chance with Ricky and decides to find a product that enhances her natural beauty, not covers it. She stumbles upon Balmshell and realizes this is the product for her. Ricky meets her that night and is speechless from her beauty. He tells her less is more and you look beautiful. Brenna learns a lesson that you have to be yourself, not anyone else.

This series would be beneficial to a Television Station, because it has the main character Brenna, following her dreams and trying to succeed in what she believes in. Brenna also faces some major struggles after her mom dies, since she has to grow up without a female role model which proves difficult when she lives in a family of three boys, her father, Jeremy and Michael who are her two older brothers. She also faces daily teenage drama such as nasty girls, falling in love, peer pressure, and shows the correct and wrong ways to deal with these issues which is beneficial for the learning of pre-teens.

 

I can't believe Junior High is almost finished. It's been such a roller coaster of emotions, friendships, and self discovery. It's hard to believe that a mere three years ago I never could have even dreamed that I would be this confident and successful, a Miss Teen Canada delegate! It still blows me away how far I've come.      Sarah Striga, the beginning of grade seven

I have grown an immense amount through the years thanks to amazing teachers and supportive friends, and now I feel excited and ready to embrace the triumphs and challenges that grade 10 may bring. I will be attending Central Memorial high school in grade 10 under the PVA program (PVA stands for Performing Visual Arts) I had to audition to get in, so since two of my four passions are acting and singing, I decided to audition for Musical Theatre and Choral. They both accepted me, so I had a very difficult and potentially life changing decision to make, but I decided that some classical training to further develop my voice was in need. I am now a proud member of the 2009/2010 Choral PVA program at Central Memorial. I think that Central is going to be a wonderful fit for me, since I will have many opportunities to meet other students that are equally obsessed with singing and the arts as I am. But before the future, grade nine is still in progress. Yet a life landmark has been recently reached. My grade nine graduation. although I understand that many people may not share the same enthusiasm over my small graduation, as many other Miss Teen Canada-World delegates have recently reached an ever larger life landmark. Grade 12 graduation, which I must congratulate the other delegates on. But grade nine was a large year for me full of self discovery and self encouragement. I made some life long friends who have helped me get through some of the darkest times in my life.     These are some of my best friends, Taryn, Eric, Johnny, Vicky, Albert, Drew, Amanda, Ciara, Sarah

I will put up a Gallery of my grade nine graduation photos soon, for all my fans to see

-Sarah Striga