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MISS AMERICA COMES HOME

Miss America.  Stephanie Klett is the managing director of Visit Lake Geneva, but she was also Miss Wisconsin back in 1992 and later on a big part of the tourism operations of the state under Governor Scott Walker.  Stephanie brought the Miss America contestants, national and state, to Lake Geneva for two wonderful days and nights.  They toured and spoke, all those wonderful women, at the Yerkes Observatory where the national and local press all gathered to take pictures, make videos, and ask questions.  Then the troupe of great women traveled from the Abbey (where they stayed) to the Riviera ballroom where a homecoming ball was held to honor Grace Stanke, this year’s Miss America.

From there, the following day, all the contestants and those interested in them, met at Inspiration Coffee on Main Street before heading over to the high school in order to circulate and talk to the students.  It was a whirlwind tour and Stephanie, who was everywhere and everything to everyone, Emceed the events.  What terrific crowds.  The state Misses for each state signed photos and cards, for no charge, as children lined up to gather in those precious prizes that will become, one day, historical records of substantial worth. If one were to travel to a Comicon in New York or San Diego, one would find many television and movies stars also signing photographs.  Those go for fifty to two hundred per shot.

These great women did all that for free and were available, and also totally open about their pasts and how they came to be in the positions they are in.  It’s a big deal to win a state contest, much less the national.

Grace Stanke. this year’s Miss America, is not only beautiful, but she’s also six feet tall, studies nuclear research in college and plays a violin like very few humans, even in orchestras, can.  The entertainment alone, with Stephanie doing a better job at comedy than Saturday Night Live, Grace playing the violin, and Miss Teen USA belting out opera numbers, was so worth braving the blizzard that was going on outside.  What an amazing series of events to bring to such a small city. Grace was not born in Lake Geneva, although she has been a frequent visitor for many years.  She’s from further north, taking the crown for Miss Wisconsin from Wausau.

Interestingly enough, when Miss America is crowned, she loses the state crown and her runner up in the contest is promoted to Miss Wisconsin.  Also, interestingly, Stephanie Klett’s mother was runner up for Miss America many years back, when the pageant was called a beauty contest.  The first ‘beauty contest’ was called the Atlantic City Inter-City Beauty Contest way back in 1921.

Stephanie Klett has taken the tired old Lake Geneva Area Chamber of Commerce and converted it into a modern system of showing off Lake Geneva, selling its better qualities and benefits while all the while continuing to do what Stephanie did as Emcee at the events.  She positively glowed and then emanated that glow out to everyone who was covering the events for the media and also everyone who found out at the last minute, wading through a blinding brutal blizzard to attend these extraordinary get togethers.  Steph put this all together herself, with excellent staff of course, in only two weeks.  That she does what she does for Lake Geneva is amazing.  She ought to be in Hollywood, or maybe not, because she seems totally taken and very happy with what she’s doing here.