The high school sweethearts are the Holiday Inn of Mount Kisco’s “Hudson Valley Country Manor Couple.” The lovebirds from Rockland County won a free wedding reception at the hotel for 100 guests, a gift that costs $10,000 at the facility’s free wedding giveaway bridal party last night.

“It feels good to win a wedding reception,” said Goldin, 24. “We get to save some money.”

” I am surprised,” said Olson, 25. “I can’t believe it.

The two entered a contest in which they had to submit a short essay of 50 words or less about their most memorable romantic moment. Ten finalists were selected and the stories were read, dropped in a drum and selected randomly.

With today’s plunging economy, contests like these are not that rare.

Blair Hunter-Grant, 27, is the owner of The Boutique Group, a company that specializes in recession chic weddings and social events based in New Jersey. She said that couples should take advantage of every opportunity to get some kind of help.

“In this economic climate brides are struggling financially, but all brides should try to get support,” the former Mount Vernon resident said. “There are all these contests and Web sites. The more that you take advantage of these situations the more help you can get and the more money in your pocket.”

Goldin said she is very grateful for her gift.

“This will take a lot of the stress off of my parents,” Goldin said. “My mom has MS (multiple sclerosis) and medical bills.”

Hunter-Grant advised couples to be financially conscious.

“It is not about the wedding, but the marriage,” she said. “Be smart don’t go broke over a wedding.”

For more info on The Boutique Group log on to its Web site at www.theboutiquegrp.com

Check out these weddings sites for contests and giveaways.

www.brides.com

www.theknot.com

www.wetv.com

www.weddingbee.com

Caption: Lauren Goldin, 24, and Scott Olson, 25, of Rockland County won the Holiday Inn of Mount Kisco’s free wedding giveaway. The high school sweethearts won a wedding reception for 100 guests at the hotel worth $10,000 (Danielle De Souza/The Journal News).

Well today , that is not always case.

An article in USA Today states that 66 percent of adults in the U.S are either overweight or obese. In a report released by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention this year, it stated that a quarter of adults 18 to 29 are obese and it has tripled in the last decade. A third are cigarette smokers and nearly two-thirds reported not having regular physical activity. And to top it off, many are not insured.

So the moral of the story is…........

Youth is not as glamorous as it looks.

Caption: A quarter of adults 18-29 are obese, one-third are smokers and nearly two-thirds do not exercise (Carmen Troesser/The Journal News).

Yes I am speaking of that horrible offense…...  talking on a cell phone while driving.

On Thursday at 12:01 a.m. the  New York City Police Department will start to severely punish those who “drive and dial” according to a New York Times article.

Officers will be on patrol across the city and will pay extra attention to the issue for 24 hours. Those caught will have to pay a fine of $120.

So people don’t talk on your cell phone while driving because you can get hurt or even die. And it should not be hard: I don’t know about you all, but I am not giving anyone $120 during this times!

BE SAFE!

Caption: Woman uses speaker phone to comply with state cell phone use law( Vincent DiSalvo/The Journal News).

College students spoke to high school seniors about they dangers they may face when they attend college.

Teens N Transition is a program of PEACEOUTside Campus-The Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to Lindsey Bonistall, a 20-year-old White Plains woman who was raped and strangled in her off-campus apartment at the University of Delaware in 2005.

“We give them advice from college students,” said Kathleen Bonistall, Lindsey’s mother and co-founder of the organization. “We want to make the college years the best years of their lives, and if we can prevent a family from going through what we endured, we did something.”

Even through college is full of fun and novel experiences,  horrible things do occur.

At least one in four college women will be the victim of a sex assault during her academic career, the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault said.

And male college students were twice as likely to be victims of overall violence as female students, according to a 1995 to 2002 study cited on the Justice Department’s Web site.

For more info on how to stay safe log on to The Security on Campus  Web site here

Caption: College students face dangers on campus (Kathy McLaughin/The Poughkeepsie Journal).

If some of you do not know, R &B singer Chris Brown,20, was arrested for allegedly beating up his girlfriend Singer Rihanna,21, about two weeks ago.

The story is all over the television and newspapers and I can honesty say that on my way to work I hear jokes about the situation on the radio each day.

No matter how exciting this story may be to some, it deals with a much bigger issue: Young abusive relationships.

In high school I had a number of friends whose boyfriend’s would verbally and emotionally abuse them. I remember hearing “Oh he did not hit me that hard” or “I got him angry so that is why he did it.”

Do not get me wrong, it goes both ways. There are situations in which men are abused or both parties are doing the abusing.

So are you in a abusive relationship? Here are ways to find out according a BBC relationship quiz.

1. Does your partner harm you physically in any way? (Hitting, slapping, punching, grabbing, shaking etc)

2. Do they try and control different aspects of your life? (Telling you how to dress, who to associate with, what to say)

3.Do they frequently humiliate you and make you feel unworthy?

4.Do they threaten to harm you?

5. Do they twist the truth to blame you for their actions?

6. Do they demand to know where you are at all times?

7. Do they become jealous when you want to spend time with family and friends?

If so, you may be in a abusive relationship.

We are all adults and we make our own decisions. We have the power to stay or leave situations that may be harmful to us. I am not going to tell anyone what to do with their lives.

However I will say that no one deserves to be treated that way.

Caption: Singer Rihanna was hospitalized the night before the Grammys after she was allegedly beaten up by boyfriend Singer Chris Brown.

Well, due to lack of health care, people in their 20s are borrowing medicine from others. In an article in The New York Times, it stated that many 20-somethings are without health insurance and have resorted to borrowing medicine from others and self-diagnosing.

The article stated that people in their 20s shun health insurance because their age makes them feel invulnerable and mostly because policies are out of reach.

Young adults are the nation’s largest group of the uninsured. There were 13.2 million (29 percent) of them nationally in 2007 according to the figures from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group in New York.

The article also pointed out that many “young invincibles” face the challenge of living in high priced cities on low paying jobs with no benefits.

Read the article.

Caption: Young adults have resorted to borrowing medicine from others due to lack of health insurance (Seth Harrison/The Journal News).

She has accomplished a great deal in the last two years, but what she is most proud of is that she is going to take part in an historic event.

Jeffrey will distribute 10,000 brownies at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington for Inauguration services.Connie’s Bakery donated 20,000 brownies to various Inauguration events. Jeffrey will take part in the “Day of Service” event on Martin Luther King Day. 

“I am a big Obama fan,” said the Tobago native. “I am excited and I remember saying in November that I will go to Inauguration in January.”

She said that she cannot believe that she is living in these historic times.

“When I get down there, I don’t know how I am going to react,” she smiled.

Jeffery said that after all she has been through, she is finally very content. 

“My life is better,” she declared. “I get up everyday and I make a difference. I love my life. I thank God for it. I am not just living.” 

Caption: Jaime Jeffrey,30, will distribute 10,000 brownies in Washington for Inauguration Services.  Once homeless and unemployed  Jeffery became an assistant pastry chef through a one-year baking apprenticeship program (Danielle De Souza/The Journal News).

I love films, especially biographic films. I enjoy watching the lives of celebrities and political figures and learning how they overcame poverty, their struggles and rose to fame. Some of my favorite biographic films include: “What’s Love Gotta Do With It” about the life of Tina Turner, “The Buddy Holly Story,” “Frida.” “The Jacksons: The American Dream” and my most recent favorite, “Milk,” a beautiful film about the life and death of gay activist Harvey Milk.

Even though I enjoyed these films, I never knew what it was like to live during those time periods.

Well tomorrow, however, I can say ‘I remember that.’ Many people in their 20s can say that they know who the Notorious B.I.G. is and that his music was present in most of their teenage years.

I remember when I was 15-years-old, waking up a Sunday morning, turning on the radio and hearing that he was murdered the night before at 24-years-old. I remember going to school the next day and everyone talking about it. I remember kids planning to ditch school to attend his public funeral in Brooklyn. I remember kids rushing to the music store to buy his album “Life after Death” that was released two weeks after he was murdered. And what I remember most was his music.

The music our parents called garbage, but us teens loved. The music that played at our school dances, the music that I listened to as I gossiped with my cousins, the music that was fun, vulgar, and spoke to us.

He was the most successful rapper during those times. The times when we were young, carefree and naive.

Tomorrow, some 20-somethings may be taken back, hearing songs that were the soundtrack to their young lives.

Caption: Notorious B.I.G. accepts 1995 Billboard Award for Best Rapper (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan).

The findings come from the US Education Department’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy, a survey of more than 19,000 Americans 16 and older.

Large states such as California, New York, Florida and Nevada saw the rise in the number of low skill adults.

Caption: One in seven Americans cannot read anything more advanced than a children’s picture book (Danielle De Souza/The Journal News).

Near the end of her 2007 internship, she realized that she wanted to give back and teach photography. This year, Borowick eight weeks in Mowire, Ghana where she taught art and  photography to 380 students.

During her stint there, she realized that resources such as water and electricity were scarce and founded the Ghana on Tap Program. Borowick will host a photo exhibit this Saturday at the Katonah Art and Frame Shop to raise money to have a well built in Mowire.

“The trip made me appreciate resources like water,” said the Chappaqua resident. “I am a different person because of it.”

Borowick was raised in Chappaqua and graduated from Horace Greeley High School in 2003. She attended Union College in Schenectady and earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, photography and modern languages. After completing college she became an intern at Glamour Magazine.

In April, Borowick traveled to Ghana to teach at the Triumph International School. Her students ranged in age from 4-14.

Toward the end of her trip, she asked her host mother what she could do for the school when she returned home. A new well was needed, was the reply.

“The well that they had near the school was usually dry and used by the entire village, ” Borowick said.

So when she came back to the United States, she went on a mission.

In September she had a fundraising photo exhibit displaying her photos in New York City and raised $3,000. Her exhibit on Saturday will display her photos and photographs taken by her students in Ghana. She said she hopes to raise more than $6,000 towards the well.

Borowick said that she loves giving back and plans to go back to Ghana next summer to teach photography to high school students.

“I like the idea of connecting with people and being able to communicate with my photography,” she said. “There is so much power in pictures. It really is the universal language.”

The Ghana on Tap photo exhibit called Take Me A Snap Snap will be at the Katonah Art and Frame Shop on 188 Katonah Ave on Saturday Dec 13. from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Caption: Nancy Borowick will host a photo exhibit in Katonah to raise funds to build a well in Ghana (Danielle De Souza/The Journal News).