Atlanta & Company Show/ Braves Game/ Lake Park Parade and Festival

As most people know the peak of the watermelon season is around July 4^th, so in honor of this joyous occasion we participated in three very different but equally important/memorable events during the week of Fourth of July. The very first event we took part in was an appearance on the “Atlanta & Company” television show on 11Alive in Atlanta! Both me and Samantha had been preparing for this since we knew about it a few months before. There are usually a lot of nerves that come into play when you know you’re on TV, and we wanted to have everything just perfect by the day of the show. I want to send a BIG thank you out to Samantha and her boyfriend Matt for getting the display and food ready for our big on-screen appearance. Along with talking about how the GWA has affected me over the years and what I do as the Georgia Watermelon Queen, we also introduced two recipes using watermelon. The first was called “Breakfast on the Go-Go” and the second was the “Fire and Ice Salsa.” Both of these recipes can be found at either watermelon.org or on the National Watermelon Association’s website. I want to also thank our sponsors for the event, International Paper and Seminis Seed. Our second appearance was on the same day at the Braves’ Stadium!

 This was one of the most exciting promotions for me because not only were we able to pass out over 5,000 fans to all of the people coming in, I also had the privilege of being a Honorary Captain for the team! Our crew was posted up right outside the stadium in Monument Park which was the perfect place to meet every fan coming in. Thank you to Mr. Charles and Mrs. Dawn, Rusty and Rebecca from Seminis Seed, and my family for being there to support and help make the promotion as successful as it was! We also had the honor of having the South Carolina Watermelon Queen, Catherine Wooditch, in attendance along with her parents Mike and Lynn Wooditch. 

When the game began, as honorary captain, I made my way down to home plate with a Brave’s coach to give the head umpire the batting line-up. After this memorable occasion Samantha and I got to travel up to the Braves suite where we were fed hot pretzels, pizza, and soda, and got to meet a number of influential people. We finished the night watching the Braves defeat their competitors of the night, the Marlins. Our last stop during the July Fourth week was actually on July Fourth. Although Lake Park, like almost everywhere else in Georgia, felt the massive downpour of rain of July 4^th, their parade and festival went on. The parade went fantastically! I had the best driver (Barry Plotnick) and the hottest car in the whole thing! Afterwards we were invited spend the afternoon with Mr. Barry at his humble abode lining Long Pond in Lake Park. It continued to rain, but we did not let that affect our Fourth of July celebration. 

Thank you to Mr. Barry, his wife, and close friends for feeding us and taking us out on the pontoon! It made my Fourth of July! We headed to the Lake Park festival around 4 o’clock to spend the rest of the evening with the Lake Park community. Before we were hit by the South Georgia monsoon that has been all too familiar this summer, we successfully passed out watermelon to the majority of the people who took part in the festival. 

You have to be the best Georgia Watermelon Queen you can be rain or shine, in our case mostly rain. Thank you to Mrs. Sandy and her husband for stopping by and making us feel welcome! Like always, make sure you keep up with the Georgia Watermelon Association on Facebook and by our website georgiawatermelonassociation.org.

Toronto

So along with having the opportunity to hang out with some of the most fun-loving, well-rounded, and entertaining people who are involved in the watermelon industry, I also have the pleasure to go on some pretty amazing trips as the Georgia Watermelon Queen. One being going to Toronto, QC, Canada (or as the Canadian’s called it “Torono”). This was one of my favorite trips all around so far. If you've ever heard that Canada has the friendliest people, believe it!!!

Within our first day, a man stopped randomly to talk about the best things to go sight-see (partly because we were the classic tourist standing outside of our hotel holding a map looking lost), we received a free appetizer, and sat for over an hour talking to a couple of older ladies who were absolutely amazed about the fact I was the Georgia Watermelon Queen. The first night we were taken care of by Ms. Ginny, who took us to the most amazing Porteguese restaurant, then went fast asleep for the full weekend ahead of us. Friday we had the opportunity to appear on a Roger’s network television show. All three queens who were there for the weekend had an important part in the show (me, FWA Queen Brandi Harrison, and NWA Queen Amber Nolin). These included the nutritional benefits of watermelon, spreading the word about our Longo’s store promotions, how to safely store a watermelon, and how to pick one. The last and most interesting part of the show was the live watermelon-eating contest, me and Brandi were the judges! That night we had a blast going to see the play the Wizard of Oz in a cool local theatre and then had the opportunity to see some local bands in Toronto’s downtown square. The next day was filled with Longo’s in-store promotions.

 There were a total of three stores we visited: Bathurst, Maple, and Rutherford. Each store we visited was like a grocery store on steroids. They had the most variety of produce and baked goods I’ve ever seen in my life in a grocery store! Every location I emceed a watermelon eating contests for the local kids! The amount of watermelon a child could eat in the matter of a few minutes would astound you! I want to give a special thanks to Mimmo Fransone who was the man in charge Saturday afternoon in all our travels! Along with setting up the promotions and driving us around, he also fed us Tim Horton’s (Canada’s Starbucks) coffee and “Killer” brownies. The rest of the day we had the pleasure of making our way to Niagara Falls.

Fitting a group of seven in a small SUV for a road-trip to Niagara Falls was an experience within itself. Thank you to Julimar Rosado (rep. from the National Watermelon Promotion Board) for driving us and putting up with our crew for the whole weekend. Toronto was a whirlwind of fun. After we arrived home in Atlanta on our 7:30am flight, I almost wished we hadn’t left!