A Note From The Executive Director Good morning and Happy Wednesday everyone!

It’s my hope that this issue of the Crown Chronicle finds you well! Gosh, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks for the MKO! The last time we spoke, orientation weekend and Miss America National Day of Service was on the horizon! Team Kentucky ended up in the Top fundraising groups nationally, raising over $6,700 for the Children’s Miracle Network! Go Kentucky! You may have also seen in your emails that Molly Morgan, Miss University of Kentucky and Haven Wolfe, Miss Jefferson County’s Outstanding Teen were the winners of their respective Day of Service Challenges! Congrats ladies! They won a full page ad at the beginning of their respective program books along with 2 sets of tickets for their respective pageants! Additionally, the Miss contestants won the Miss vs. Teen challenge, winning chair massages on interview day during the Miss Kentucky pageant!

Orientation was fantastic! We were able to meet 53 total contestants that will be competing this year and boy are they awesome! The Teen competition will surely be fierce, and season ticket packages are officially on sale through the Kentucky Center Box office (details below)! The Miss contestants were surprised with news that this year’s Miss Kentucky Pageant will be live-streamed! We’re so excited about the opportunity to share the Miss Kentucky experience with the nation! Stay tuned for details! We also announced a new partnership with Churchill Downs that you will be hearing more about soon! Thank you to Tonya Abeln for your work on this partnership!

In this issue of the Crown Chronicle, you will catch up with our state titleholders, Molly and Abby! As usual, they have been busy!!! We also had the opportunity to check in with Miss Kentucky’s Outstanding Teen 2012, Lauren Bohl! This young lady has been very busy since her year of service! She’s one of the sweetest and most humble young women I’ve ever met. Absolutely love her and thankful to call her sister!

As always, I’m wishing you a wonderful week! If you haven’t completed the former competitors survey, please take 5 minutes to do that! Yours in Service,

Ashley

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MKYOT May 25-27th, 2018

Miss Kentucky June 28th - 30th,

2018

APRIL 18, 2018

The Crown Chronicle Miss Kentucky Pageant

Forever MKYOT: Lauren Bohl Miss Kentucky's Outstanding Teen 2012 • What have you been up to since you gave up the MKYOT title? I have

graduated with honors from Barbourville High School, while making it to state tournament with my golf team. I decided to use my MKYOT scholarships to attend Union College in my hometown. There I became a student ambassador, which works summer orientations and gives prospective students campus tours. Shortly after my sophomore year, I became a home owner. On school breaks, my mom and I love ‘momma-daughter trips’ to Disney World. It’s the best quality time ever!

• What has college life been like? College has honestly been confusing at times. Like many students, it took me a while to truly decide what I wanted to pursue. I changed my major three times, but ultimately chose Education. Growing up watching both my mom and dad educate tomorrow’s future, I was inspired to follow in their footsteps. I hope to teach at the preschool or kindergarten level. I am now substitute teaching and almost finished with my degree.

• Looking back on your year of service, what was your most memorable moment? Leaving for Miss America’s Outstanding Teen, my grandparents drove my mom and I to the Blue Grass Airport. Our incoming plane was struck by lightning, resulting in the flight being cancelled. We had family members in Lexington kind enough to welcome us into their home for a night, and my papaw drove us to Louisville Airport the next morning. Meanwhile, my dad and brother were waiting in Orlando with allll my gowns in the back of the truck. After some stressful events, I made it to MAOT just in time for the Tony Bowls photo shoot.

• Funniest moment? This was a moment that happened so quickly it became funny. Traveling to Las Vegas and cheering on Miss Kentucky 2012, Jessica Casebolt, was so special to me. Before the first night of preliminaries, my mom and I were casually walking the halls of Planet Hollywood. A nicely dressed woman walked by and I said, “hello, how are you!?” She replied, “I’m wonderful, thank you” and proceeded on. My mom looked at me very confused and asked, “who was that?” I calmly answered, “Sherri Hill.” We laughed and laughed and agreed this was the ‘best trip ever’!

•What is something you miss? I miss the magic of the crown. The eyes and ears you receive from boys and girls as they are eager to learn from what you have to say. I love how the crown can be such an amazing tool to share a message. When I was younger, I thought my message would come to an end when I gave up my crown. Now becoming a teacher, I realize everyone has opportunities to be great examples and share messages daily. The crown is not essential, but it is helpful. I am so thankful I realized a life of service shouldn’t be dependable on anything except you, but the crown sure does create some magic. •What was the most difficult thing about being Miss Kentucky's Outstanding Teen? To be completely honest, some days I would dread walking in the halls of high school because I signed in late from reading and speaking at an elementary school. I was scared my peers would judge me. I would oftentimes not post about events because I feared other girls to view me as ‘better than them’ just because I had a crown. The stereotype of ‘pageant girls’ just looking pretty in a crown always bugged me, and I think that’s what the majority of my peers thought. I always wished they could

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witness the community service side of it, and understand it’s all so much more than a crown.

• What advice do you have for teens interested in competing? Don’t be so nervous! After my first preliminary interview EVER, I walked outside the room with hives from head to toe! My mom asked, “How’d you do!?!?” I replied, “I think I did okay…” shaking with red spots covering my body. I went on to win Miss Berea Area’s Outstanding Teen that night. Looking back to my beginning days in the teen program, I would over analyze everything! The good news is the worries seemed to fade away with all the friendships made at MKYOT weekend. Tons of girls who loved makeup and dresses together in one dressing room felt like summer glam camp. I’ll never forget praying together by the curtain before top 10 and top 5 were called. Those girls are now my lifelong friends. Just remember everyone is there for the same goal, so use that to support one another and be happy for their success. It truly is a sisterhood!

• What did you learn about yourself while you were MKYOT? I learned no dream is too big. I had always dreamt of becoming like one of those girls gracing the Miss America stage I watched on television, but convinced myself it would never happen. When basketball and cheerleading just didn’t work out my freshman year of high school, I surprisingly begged my mom to try a pageant. Clueless on where to start, she contacted a former Miss Kentucky from my hometown, Kerri Mitchell Calloway. She advised me to start big and try a preliminary to MKYOT 2011. Winning the preliminary and placing top 10, I worked harder than ever for MKYOT 2012. Although I did sooo many things to prepare, I still doubted my ability to actually have a shot at winning. When the time finally arrived to reveal the winner, I was in shock my hard work actually paid off. Throughout my year, I never stopped being grateful that what I envisioned actually came true. From that point on, I learned to not lack confidence in myself.

• How has your participation in MKYOT impacted your life? At my first ever MKYOT orientation, Laura Jones (MKYOT 2010 and Miss KY 2016) was speaking to all the contestants. I was STARSTRUCK. That was the moment I first fell in love with this organization. I was in awe of her and everything she was saying. The way she presented herself in front of an audience made ‘little shy me’ inspired to become someone like her. That’s when it all clicked in my mind, the true reason I have watched Miss America on television every year since I could walk. Although at one point in my life I was a huge basketball player my dad nicknamed ‘Baby Shaq’… although I was super shy when talking to crowds…although my piano skills were at a third grade level… I had that inspiration in my heart to become someone like Laura Jones. In that moment, I could envision my potential and how this organization could shape me into the well-rounded woman I had always wanted to become…intelligent, talented, classy, well-spoken… That is my dream in this organization. I have always wanted my focus of success to not be measured by whether or not I achieve a crown, but by becoming the woman I have always looked up to and wished to be.

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Miss America Day of Service • Many contestants held their own fundraisers to help raise money for the Miss America Day of

Service.The Teen Day of Service Challenge winner is Haven Wolfe. Haven held a bake sale & an online pie auction. In the end, Haven raised $225 for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. The Miss Day of Service Challenge is Molly Morgan. She held a grocery bagging and bake sale event in her hometown. Molly raised over $1,000. Both contestants win a full page ad at the front of the program book, as well as two sets of tickets to their respective pageants.Team Kentucky exceeded our $5,000 fundraising goal by raising $6,771, which landed us in 6th place nationally!

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MESSAGE FROM MISS KENTUCKY 2017 MOLLY MATNEY "Usually in the Crown Chronicle I touch on a few appearances here and there, but for this one I'll give a play by play run down of all my travels! Two schools and a mobile science center in Florence, Miss America's Day of Service at KDA in Frankfort, Miss Kentucky and MKYOT Orientation in Lexington, a mobile science center in Marion County, a trip to Grayson County, a trip to Hart County, five AMAZING schools in Butler county, modeling at the national pageant convention, a few trips to Don Franklin and a new Buick (yay!!!), a cover shoot with Ryan Kendall, Delaney Henry, and my girl Ashley Anderson, and a few trips home to see my family all in less than two weeks! After our amazing orientation, I'm so excited to see who will be the next Miss Kentucky! We have an awesome group of girls and I know all of them are excited for a chance at this busy, busy job!"

• Nearly all of the Miss and Teen contestants took part in a service activity on Saturday, April 7th as part of the Miss America Day of Service. The contestants gathered at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture campus in Frankfort to pack boxes of food to be handed out to local families through the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's Hunger Initiative. Contestants boxed over 150 boxes of food in less than two hours.

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ANECDOTE FROM MISS KENTUCKY'S OUTSTANDING TEEN ABBY QUAMMEN "The past couple of weeks have been incredibly busy in all of the best ways! I had the pleasure of visiting the most hospitable elementary school I’ve visited yet. Florence Elementary treated me so well! I got to wear a very early 2000’s Brittany Spears style head mic, AND they had fried chicken waiting when I was finished speaking. Talk about a great school visit! Last weekend, we had the best orientation weekend! It was amazing to spend such valuable bonding time with all of the girls, and it was so special to reflect back on my year and to share my heart with everyone. We wrapped up the last couple of weeks at the first National Pageant Convention! I always cherish the time I get to spend with Ashley, Destiny, and Molly. I hope everyone has a great week!"

Miss Kentucky Org. Orientation Weekend

Want to book Miss Kentucky or Miss Kentucky's Outstanding Teen?

For Miss Kentucky, email: bookmissky@gmail.com

For Miss Kentucky's Outstanding Teen, email: misskyoteen@gmail.com

Upcoming Events:

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Porter Memorial Spring Carnival April 28, 2018

Miss Kentucky's Outstanding Teen

May 25th-27th, 2018

Miss Kentucky June 28th-30th, 2018

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Have something you would like to see in the Crown Chronicle?

Contact us! Sydney DeLong

Phone: (859) 509-3561 Email: sydney.a.delong@gmail.com

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