"A Fall of Inspiration"

This past weekend was a perfect representation of the versatility of my platform with it naturally fitting any event or appearance on my schedule. I have received many nominations lately on
whohasinspiredyou.com of inspiring people, which makes me thrilled! Some were from the 7th graders I recently visited at Detroit Lakes Middle School, and others were from individuals who are eager to have their inspiring American recognized at an upcoming
“Night of Inspiration Concert.” Among the most interesting nominations was for a woman to be recognized at a family birthday party. So, on Saturday, I drove 3 ½ hours into Wisconsin to highlight an Inspiring American named Gloria. It was her uncle’s birthday party, but Gloria’s niece, Jacquie, nominated her and wanted to surprise her while the whole family was there. I think she found it a bit odd when Miss Minnesota showed up in WI to celebrate a birthday, but she was so welcoming anyway! It was great to share my platform while also talking about what being Miss Minnesota entails. As I spoke about the vision of Inspiring America, it was such an honor to share Gloria’s story with the family. By the end we were all in tears because of the incredibly touching moment, so it was time to bring on the entertainment. I brought my keyboard along so I could inspire with some original music; they were a great audience! After leaving, it really sunk in how it doesn’t matter whether I am speaking to hundreds of students, or to a group of Rotary members, or even a family celebrating; my platform can touch the lives of so many and as a result, my own life is touched! This job continually produces abundant blessing in my life! You can find Gloria’s inspiring story on the
Inspiring Stories link on the website.

I want to also recognize a wonderful young lady, and a great friend of mine, Bethany Beniek! She put on a fantastic CMN fundraising concert in St. Josephs with Tonic Sol Fa and another a capela group called Johnnie Blend. Both groups were awesome! I also had the honor of kicking off the concert with my piano music. Bethany put in months preparing for this concert and found great sponsors to donate wonderful prizes including a complimentary manicure, pedicure and up-do for me before the concert! The concert drew in a great crowd so I know the event was a great success!

Speaking of concerts, I will be hosting another “Night of Inspiration” this coming Saturday, October 2nd, in the Twin Cities suburb of Maplewood at Redeeming Love Church. If you haven’t made one of these concerts, please come to this one! We have some great talent of titleholders in the area as well as dancers and musicians from the community. If you have heard “Quintessence” on the
Beyond Measure CD , you have to come to this event and hear me perform it with two violins! The stories we will be sharing will truly touch your heart, so be sure to invite your friends and family out to Redeeming Love Church this Saturday at 7PM. For more information, check out
'Calendar Events' on the Inspiring America website.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog! Also, many thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! I had a wonderful birthday on Wednesday that included horseback riding, dinner with friends and some karaoke! I sang, “It’s Raining Men,” one of my favorite classics! I’m certain that anyone who heard me sing is thanking God that my talent for Miss America is not singing…but it was a blast to use my pipes nonetheless!


Until next time,
Kathryn Knuttila
Miss Minnesota 2010

From Here to There, I’m Everywhere!

This was a busy week for me so I apologize in advance for this being a long blog!

Let’s start with 6:30am on Tuesday the 14th! On this very early morning, I started my day by serenading the Detroit Lakes Morning Rotary club followed by giving a presentation. This group was so supportive and encouraging with contributions of $260 to CMN through 26 CD sales! Thank you to Kathy Dretsch for inviting me to be her guest there!
The next day, I traveled south for 3 hours to Coon Rapids where I met up with another civic organization, the Coon Rapids Lions Club. While I was there, I shared the vision for my platform, the Children’s Miracle Network, and my fundraising CD. And, in the mix of all of that, I was honored to recognize a very important member of their club, John Leggate. Six years ago, when John was diagnosed with cancer, he was told he had only a few months to live. He planned his funeral and spent his last few months with his family. Here we are today, and I was able to share his story and recognize him as a ‘miracle’ Inspiring American! He is healthier and happier than ever. To read his full story, check out whohasinspiredyou.com!
Then came Thursday, which presented a very full day in my hometown of Detroit Lakes! It started out at the Detroit Lakes Middle School where I spoke to 160 7th graders. I will admit I was a little worried that 7th graders would feel ‘too cool’ to listen or ask questions, but boy was I wrong! They were so much fun! They were very attentive and asked some great questions. The best part was when I asked them, “Who has inspired you?” They shared some wonderful stories and some of them even nominated their inspiring person on the website!

From there, I went to Emmanuel Nursing home where I gave a small concert of the original music from my CMN fundraising CD Blessed Beyond Measure, which you can find on the Inspiring America website. They are planning on having a Miss America party at the nursing home and they told me they are sure that I am the next Miss America. Let's hope they are right! Either way it feels wonderful to have so much support and encouragement from every appearance I have done!

After that, I ran over to the D.L. pavilion center for the “Community Celebration Day,” which was a fundraiser for United Way. I had a booth available to sell CD’s, sign autographs and meet people. And, I was able to perform on stage, which is always a thrill for me!






To finish off the day, I went to the Detroit Lakes Mall and did a fashion show with Maurices, which was a fundraiser for the Humane Society called “Rescues and Runways.” Rescues & Runways is a national campaign created by maurices, in partnership with the ASPCA® American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In its second year, the goals of this program have remained the same: to increase awareness of animal shelters, in turn, increasing pet adoptions through pet-themed fashion shows. More than 750 maurices locations across the U.S. are hosting the fashion shows along with raising supply and cash donations for our forever friends!By the time I left Detroit Lakes for the St. Paul parade on Friday evening, I had personally addressed 160 autographs to each 7th grader and got a case of writer’s cramp! With all the typing we do nowadays my hand kept cramping as I was writing their cards! They were all so excited to have their own personalized card so the cramps were worth it; I hope it is something they keep for awhile!

On Sunday morning, I was at the Mall of America for the Midwest Special Services Walk and Roll Fundraiser! There were over 500 people there to walk or roll around the mall in support of MSS. Being a part of all of these fundraisers never gets old…I love playing any role to help support these worthy causes.
Later that afternoon, I entered “pageant mode” attending the Miss Twin Cities Orientation. It is going to be a great competition with some outstanding talents; I can’t wait for it! Admittedly, it will feel a bit sad to officially hand over the title to someone new even though I surrendered my Miss Twin Cities role when I became Miss Minnesota (I think it was a good swap)! Miss Twin Cities/Capital City Pageant is Oct 23rd so mark your calendars!
While I was in pageant mode, we just kept going with it on Monday for the Miss America lottery to determine my competition group! Talk about exciting and nerve-racking!! This lottery dictates the order of my preliminary competition, and I was 47th to be picked. As you can imagine, after 46 other girls had selected their position, there wasn’t much left to choose from. But, I was thrilled to land a spot in the Alpha Group so I can perform my talent on the first night of preliminaries. I will be contestant three on each of the preliminary nights with competitions as follows: Monday Afternoon – Interview; Tuesday PM – Talent; Wednesday PM – On-stage Question; Thursday PM – Swimsuit and Evening Gown. My imagination is running wild as the reality of competing for Miss America is really sinking in!!
But, I had no time to savor that daydream because I had to immediately head to the Ivey Awards. My sister Kari accompanied me, which made the night all the more special for both of us! We met so many talented people around Minneapolis/St. Paul who are singers, dancers, choreographers, composers and designers. We were in great company!
See, I told you this was a busy week, but so much fun! It really does make the time fly!

Thank you for taking the time to read what I have been up to. God Bless you!

Kathryn Knuttila
Miss Minnesota 2010

An Afternoon of Inspiration!

I am writing this blog feeling overwhelmed with emotions from Sunday’s “Afternoon of Inspiration” concert in Moorhead. I literally get goose bumps thinking about it. It was the most beautiful uplifting day I’ve had; I am so deeply reminded of God’s wonderful grace and the presence he has in my life. He has truly blessed me beyond measure with this opportunity to serve Minnesota this year and to take the focus off the crown I wear and on to the people it represents. At this "Afternoon of Inspiration," we recognized five Inspiring Americans from the Moorhead area, whose stories left not a dry eye in the house, including myself (I have learned to wear waterproof mascara for these concerts)! (The picture above was one of our Inspiring Americans, Alyssa, a survivor of leukemia and the 2010 ND CMN Champion. ) All of the stories are incredible and I wish I could share them with you but you will have to read them on www.whohasinspiredyou.com. In between these remarkable stories, the new Miss Moorhead and Moorhead’s Outstanding Teen Organization were showcased with their talents and their service work. Congratulations to Tiffany Shulstad Peterson, the new Miss Moorhead and to the Red River Valley Outstanding Teen, Brianna Drevlow, who were crowned Saturday night. Savanna Tate Snyder, a past Miss Moorhead, absolutely captured the audience with her vocal talent. More impressive, however, was her ability to overcome a very challenging week with the passing of her grandfather and still be able to perform with such grace and heart at this concert. (I know he was at that concert, Savanna, and he was smiling down on you!) Another hit was the St. Joseph's Mens Choir who not only color coordinated perfectly with the colors of Inspiring America but entertained the audience!
We raised over $750 at this concert for the Children's Miracle Network so thank you so much to everyone who helped make this day happen and be a success!

If you have not been to one of these concerts yet, I encourage you to make one in your area. The next one will take place in Maplewood on Oct. 2nd and we are looking for nominations of individuals in the Twin Cities area. Please take the time to nominate someone who has inspired you on whohasinspiredyou.com. You probably don’t realize what it would mean to them and how their story could inspire others. The stories from today’s concert will be on www.whohasinspiredyou.com along with pictures. I am planning to post some video from the concert on Inspiring Americas Facebook so become a fan and you can check that out, too!



Outside of being enormously inspired this past week, I also kept busy with the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon on Labor Day. I was at the Treasure Island Casino answering phones and taking donations…. And no, I didn’t gamble! This year, the MDA TELETHON ACHIEVED $58,919,838!! If you made a donation, thank you for your contribution.



I met quite a few youth who had some form of MD and they were so encouraging. They were similar to the amazing children at the Children’s Miracle Network hospitals--full of life and an energized spirit...precisely what I strive to take with me everywhere I go! I will be needing it especially this week with lots of traveling every day for appearances. I have a busy but exciting week planned so I look forward to sharing that with you next time!

Have a wonderful week,
Kathryn Knuttila
Miss Minnesota 2010

Minnesota State Fair!

I hope everyone was able to get out to the Minnesota State Fair while it was open. I spent 13 hours there on Thursday and had the greatest time! My feet and stomach might tell you otherwise but it was well worth it! I thought it would be fun to do this blog more as a picture book instead because sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words, or at least a couple sentences in my case...


I started the day off at 7:30am at WCCO News to do an interview.


Throughout the day I stopped and gave numerous interviews with all the local media booths.



I was even able to perform at one of the stations, Garage Logic (1500 ESPN), with Joe Soucheray. He was a good sport. I gave him a hard time for trying to get me to write a song... about a tractor!?


After indulging in more than my fare share of fried fair food, I did a blindfolded food-eating contest on Twin Cities Live!


... and guess who won?!!!

While walking around the fair many people stopped me to say hi, take pictures, and sign autographs. My favorite encounters are when little children see me coming and have this wide-eyed gaze upon them. What they don't know is that it is just as special for me as it is for them.

All and all it was a fantastic day! But, on second thought, maybe it's a good thing the Minnesota State Fair only comes once a year.... you know, with the deliciously fattening food and all!

God Bless You,
Kathryn Knuttila
Miss Minnesota 2010