In the 12 months that she’s championed her cause and others, Laura has received many awards for her care of children of prisoners. “I try to offer a positive light to these children and let them know it doesn’t have to define them, and it doesn’t have to limit their possibilities,” she said.
As the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals national goodwill ambassador, the raven-haired Kenosha, Wis., opera singer, 24, also has raised awareness and record funds in the past 12 months. She kicked off the IHOP National Pancake Day right after her coronation, and more than $3 million was raised.
Laura returns to Las Vegas on Jan. 3 as the 2013 Miss America Pageant contestants prepare for the 2-hour ABC telecast on Saturday, Jan. 12. I talked with her as she began preparations to relinquish her crown and title and offered her Christmas message.
Robin Leach: I’d love you to go back to when your name was called a year ago. Did you believe it at that moment, and how has this year changed you from the young lady whose knees may have buckled a year ago?
Laura Kaeppeler: I have to start by saying my goal going to Miss America was to make the Top 10 and win the talent preliminary. When I won talent, I knew that was a step in the right direction. Then I made the Top 15, and then the Top 12, and then the Top 10, and I thought that my job was done. I had reached the goal that I wanted, and then when I was called into the Top 5, I couldn’t believe it because that was just a blessing and so much more than I had ever dreamed.
Then as the elimination began, I remembered being the last two standing, with Miss Oklahoma Betty Thompson, who became a really great friend of mine. We were standing there, and in part of my mind, I felt like my name could be called, and then in the other part of my mind, I knew that I was standing there with another extraordinary woman. I really didn’t know what was going to happen!
Some girls have that inkling or intuition -- I didn’t have that -- so when they did call my name, I was just overwhelmed with excitement and joy. I worked extremely hard for months and months and months, a work in progress leading me to that moment. All that hard work paid off in a way that I never in a million years had dreamed or expected. It was really an incredible moment, but I can’t really even remember it.
It is an extremely unusual year in that you are one day Laura from Wisconsin, and the next minute you are Miss America, and you are thrown into this crazy year of travel, appearances and nonstop schedule. It really pushes you to the limit in what you think you are capable of; I have been so proud of the growth, personally and professionally. I am not going to say just this year, but the entire journey leading up to it really helped shape me into the woman I am today, and I am so proud of that young woman.
I feel like I am 40 years old now after this year, a 40-year-old trapped in an almost 25-year-old’s body.
R.L.: It obviously defines your growing up, so what did you learn from this experience?
L.K.: You learn so many different things. I think patience is the No. 1 thing that I have learned this year because you are dealing with an appearance and travel schedule that is out of your control.
It is a year that you are really not living for yourself; serving others before yourself is the name of the game. I have really learned to be selfless, and I have really learned what a great feeling it is to give because when you give, you gain so much in return.
This year really pushes you to your limit, and I have learned when to say no, and I think that is a really important quality to have. It is so hard, but you are under intense pressure and scrutiny. Now I know myself extremely well; I know what I can handle and I know what I cannot. So, I think being able to say no in certain circumstances has been really helpful this year.
R.L.: The most memorable moment of the year? The most embarrassing?
L.K.: The highlights of my year have come every day in some small way or form. My platform is what is the most important to me, so the highlight has been working with it and the children it affects. For me, the small moments when no media are present and it is just one split-second glimpse of pure beauty in a child or pure innocence is what really resonated with me to say that my job was well done.
There were two kids who came up to me one time and said, “I think you are brave for telling your story.” Then another kid, “I am just like you; my dad was in prison, too.” Those were so powerful that they resonated with me, and, looking back, the likes of those two examples have been the highlight of my year.
The most embarrassing: I did forget the crown at a grocery store! I also had a woman bow to me on all fours one time, and that was just awkward. I forgot my crown, missed a flight -- drama happens every day all the time.
Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/dec/24/miss-america-laura-kaeppeler-discusses-her-reign-o/
