Join us for the 2019 Pioneer Days Fashion Show
Returning to Kearny, Arizona with a special guest appearance!
Join us for the Pioneer Days Fashion Show: March 9, 2019 at 4 p.m. at the General Kearny Inn.
Award-winning Journalist and Kearny native Erika Flores will be hosting the 2019 Pioneer Days Fashion Show on March 9.
She’s visiting her hometown to host this event for the second year in a row. A Ray High School graduate, Flores says she looks forward to connecting with this year’s contestants.
“Last year, I met a group of down-to-earth young women who are proud of our community and want to make a positive impact,” said Flores. “It’s this drive that will push them to do great things. I’m so proud to see them represent the Copper Basin area so well, and I look forward to meeting the new cohort.”
While growing up in the Copper Basin area, Flores was involved in the community through many volunteer and extra-curricular activities. She says it’s the disciplined schedule of balancing these activities with school work that influenced her work ethic and motivated her to seek out journalism experience at a very young age.
She started writing for The Copper Basin News while still in school as a teenager. She then wrote and edited articles for larger newspapers in Pinal County and Maricopa County including The Casa Grande Dispatch and The Arizona Republic. Her television career started at Telemundo where she hosted an entertainment show. She also developed documentaries for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); reported on culture and history in Puerto Rico; launched the first Spanish-speaking newscast at the Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism; anchored on Telefutura; reported, produced, hosted and forecasted the weather for several other television stations including CBS affiliates in Texas and Arizona, an NBC affiliate in Arizona, and independent station 3TV in Phoenix. She’s also worked with the City of Phoenix, Maricopa County and other organizations to help promote community resources.
After years of traveling and working on the road, Flores is happy to call Phoenix home. She hosts, produces and reports in videos that highlight news in Maricopa County and develops marketing/communications strategies for the fastest growing county in the nation.
Flores says another passion of hers is writing about sustainable fashion and her journey with loss and grief. She recently launched the blog: periodistafashionista.com (translates to fashionable journalist), where she’s been able to connect with people from all over the world about grief and how she uses sustainable fashion to memorialize her parents who passed away while she was in the early stages of her journalism career.
Flores says it’s important for youth to have mentors while going through the challenges of life, and it starts with connecting with people who are willing to share their stories and words of advice. She has invited friend and former colleague, LiAna Enriquez to speak to the contestants at the Pioneer Days Fashion Show. Enriquez is a reporter and investigative producer at 3TV in Phoenix, but she has roots in Superior, Arizona where her parents grew up and her grandparents lived for many years.
“It’s a privilege to come to the Copper Basin area, an area that holds a special place in my heart and holds many special childhood memories for me,” said Enriquez. “When Erika spoke to me about this wonderful community event and said she thought sharing a bit of my story might have some positive impact on the community, I was truly honored to be able to give back in some small way to a community I care so much about.”
Enriquez is a great example of how life’s challenges do not need to stop you from achieving your goals. A teenage pregnancy did not stop her from working hard to get an education and land the job of her dreams. She’s been working at 3TV now for 16 years.
The Pioneer Days Fashion Show is March 9 at the General Kearny Inn at 4 p.m.
To learn more about Erika Flores, visit erikaflorestv.com or connect with her on Instagram: @PeriodistaFashionista, Twitter or Facebook: @erikaflorestv.
Connect with LiAna Enriquez on Twitter: @LiAna3TV