2012 Polar Bear Plunge Supporting the Special Olympics.

This weekend I got a chance to travel to the Eastern Shore to take a little dip in to the icy January waters of Maryland on behalf of the Special Olympics at the Polar Bear Plunge! Fun fact: Maryland raises the most amount of money in the WORLD for the Special Olympics and I was excited to be a part of it this weekend.

I got a chance to plunge with our Governor of Maryland and was further invited to address the Senators and House Representatives of Maryland at their General Assembly! Especially since I was a Political Science major at UCLA in my undergraduate, this opportunity is a dream come true! Keep you posted on my visit, in the meantime enjoy pics from the event below!xo

New January Video.

New video of my trip to Southern Africa!

This month I traveled to South Africa and Zambia and was beyond honored by the warm welcome I got as Miss Maryland USA 2012. I visited on behalf of the 501 (c) (3) international non-profit I co-founded, The Meriwether Foundation (www.MeriwetherFoundation.org). We have several projects in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa. For example, in South Africa we started a school, clinic, feeding program and organic garden at Zitha Village which is featured in my video!

Please consider donating to The Meriwether Foundation, 100% of proceeds go to our projects and all donations are tax deductible! (Missions@MeriwetherFoundation.org for more info or like us on Facebook "Meriwether Foundation" and follow us on twitter @MeriwetherFdtn).

Upon hearing about my arrival, The Star Newspaper, Southern Africa's most read newspaper, did a story about my journey to Miss USA 2012 and about the work my non-profit does. (I posted links to the articles earlier under the post "Press.") They received so much feedback that another story was published a couple of days later.

I also got the chance to shoot with Alf Kumalo who is famous for being Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali's personal photographer. It was a true honor to be shot by such a legend!(see some of the shots below in my earlier post).

I was invited to meet with US Embassy Officials while I was in Zambia to speak about the work The Meriwether Foundation does in Zambia as well! To be recognized by the US Embassy was an honor! The Meriwether Foundation and I look forward to bettering several rural villages in Zambia as our projects continue to grow!



www.vimeo.com/channels/nanameriwether




I have a YouTube channel as well!(But I am posting new videos to my vimeo channel)
www.Youtube.com/NanaMeriwether

Alf Kumalo.

While in South Africa I was invited to shoot with legendary photographer Alf Kumalo. He is famous for being Nelson Mandela's photographer and has shot Muhammad Ali several times. I was honored to not only shoot with him but become a friend of his!

Press.

I just recently took a 10 day trip to South Africa and Zambia on behalf of the non-profit I co-founded The Meriwether Foundation (www.MeriwetherFoundation.org).

Along with visiting the numerous health, academic, agricultural and community projects The Meriwether Foundation helped start in several rural villages of Southern Africa, I got to shoot with Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali's personal photographer and I was invited to meet with US Officials at the US Embassy in Zambia about my projects!

I got to do a live radio interview on South Africa's Talk Radio 702. I was also printed on the front page of The Star Newspaper (the whole of Southern Africa's biggest newspaper). Links to the articles:

1. http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/soweto/us-model-s-heart-is-in-soweto-1.1219565

2. http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/soweto/soweto-linked-woman-eyes-miss-usa-title-1.1215936?showComments=true