A week in Orlando!

I feel like I am always saying “the past few weeks have flown by!" But, it’s true! It’s already almost September, but I have been cherishing every moment so far as Miss Minnesota! I just got back from Orlando, Florida for the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant. Our representative, Katarina Ackridge, did so incredibly well and I am so proud of her! The name of this pageant, "Outstanding Teen," is just perfect because every single one of the contestants is truly outstanding. They all have perfect GPA’s and amazing talents that blew me away! The new Miss America’s Outstanding Teen was Miss Oklahoma, a pianist.

While I was in Orlando, I had the awesome opportunity to meet all of the contestants I will be competing with at Miss America. I am so relieved and excited that I instantly made numerous friends. I can’t wait for Miss America week because I know it is going to be life changing! I roomed with Miss North Dakota whom I instantly connected with. Despite a very full schedule of events, we did have one night where we were able to relax by the poolside, mosquito free!


Some of the highlights of the week were going to Disney World (being able to skip all of the lines for rides was the best!) We did a few different video shoots while we were there. In some shots we were interviewed and others we were being videoed on the Tea Cup Ride or “acting naturally while walking, but looking excited!” Another video shoot every contestant had to do for internet promotions was the "60 second shot," which gave us one chance to explain or demonstrate to America why we should be the next Miss America. These videos will be online in October, so I will let you know when they are up (they may have the public vote on them!). We also went to a big fundraising dinner for the Miss America Organization where four other instrumentalists and I provided background music for the party. This event provided me the opportunity to play some of my original pieces from "Blessed Beyond Measure"on the piano.

Another highlight for me was doing a photo shoot for La Casa Hermosa with Miss Hawaii, Miss Iowa and Miss Maryland. La Casa Hermosa was my state evening gown dress designer (as well as the other three contestants) and is a sponsor for the Miss America Organziation. Miss America, Caressa Cameron, was there as well so we were able to watch her first before modeling some dresses ourselves. The photos possibly will be in the Four Points Magazine so I will keep you posted on that!

On Saturday morning we had an orientation meeting for the contestants. I think it finally sunk in that I have the unbelievable opportunity to compete for the job of Miss America and make lifelong friendships and scholarship dollars while I'm at it! Spread the word that Miss America will be televised on ABC on January 15th, but if you want to take a vacation in January, I'd love to see you in Vegas! For more information about tickets, contact: kathryn4missamerica@yahoo.com. I would love to have the biggest crowd of supporters; it's definitely time for Minnesota to get back on the map!

I had a wonderful time in Florida, but I'm excited to get back into the busy schedule in Minnesota of making appearances (with the State Fair coming up this week), volunteering at Gillette Specialty Healthcare, raising money for CMN, and planning Night of Inspiration Concerts while also preparing for Miss America! It's going to be a whirlwind of a next four months, but I'm ready for it!

Pageants, Blizzards and Festivals, Oh my!

Congratulations to the newly crowned Miss Heart of the Lakes, Miss Perham, Miss Midwest, Miss Morris and Miss Thief River Falls! You all have a very exciting year ahead of you and I look forward to what God has in store for all of the Miss MN class of 2011!


I am most excited to share with you about my Night of Inspiration Concert in Thief River Falls on Monday night August 2nd. It was such a great success on so many levels. There was a great showing of people that came to watch and support their community members. We recognized 9 Inspiring Americans during the concert and had such unique talent that was shared with everyone! We even had Chantall Wilson who was in London nominate someone over Skype since she couldn't be there for the concert. You can read these inspiring stories at whohasinspiredyou.com. I was moved to tears by the end of the concert and honestly didn’t want it to end! People were moved as well and truly gave generously to the Children’s Miracle Network. With the total sales from my CD’s, T-shirts, cookies and donations, it came out to be almost $2,000 raised for the Children’s Miracle Network! Thank you to everyone that helped made this night possible. I am so excited for the upcoming concerts. Check out whohasinspiredyou.com to view the dates for these! Hopefully you can make one of them and become a part of the network of inspiration.








Tuesday was the Night to Unite – National Night Out! I didn’t realize how big of an event this is nation wide! I was in Richfield meeting and greeting people, signing autographs and taking a ton of pictures! (222 to be exact!) It was a really fun night because I love to meet new people and they were so appreciative of having Miss Minnesota there!




Wednesday night I was part of the kickoff telethon for Miracle Treat day. I hope you made it out to your local Dairy Queen for blizzard because almost all Dairy Queens donated some if not all of the proceeds from sales of Blizzards that day to CMN. I had more than my fair share of blizzards! I even had a man ask me to try his first before he did to make sure it was okay! (I assured him it was!) I was also excited on Thursday for Miracle Treat Day because I started the day out at Gillette with Miss America and Miss Minnesota’s Outstanding Teen handing out blizzards to the patients. After a few hours there, I went to the Dairy Queen in Eagan and later on the Dairy Queen in Woodbury! It was a long day, but very rewarding to speak with families from Gillette and to see how excited people were!

On Saturday I was ‘on the road again…going places that I’ve never been,’ all the way towards Duluth to Tamarack for their annual Hey Days Festival. This year was their 50th anniversary so they invited Miss Minnesota there to be a part of their event! They had a parade and I crowned the King and Queen who sold the most buttons for their festival. The winner sold over 600 buttons! They had lots of food vendors and games/activities, including a dunk tank that apparently everyone thought I needed to do! I decided I would prefer to be the dunker and not the dunkee! It was a very hot day but so much fun to meet so many new people and to be in a place that I’ve never been to before.

It is truly an honor and privilege to represent this fine state and its people!

Until next time,
Kathryn Knuttila
Miss Minnesota 2010