Other spectators of the Miss America pageant on Sunday night may see Lauren Kuhn simply as Miss Massachusetts. Those watching from the Twin Harbors will see someone they’ve watched grow up — a veteran winner of local pageants — finally on the national stage.
The Miss America beauty pageant bills itself as the largest provider of scholarships for women in the world, which is a large reason Kuhn competes. Graduate school in dentistry at Harvard University is not cheap, as her mother Dawn Kuhn notes. The scholarship for first place is $50,000, which would go a long way toward the $100,000 next year’s tuition will cost.
She is already guaranteed a smaller scholarship as a Science Technology Engineering and Math finalist. Kuhn also could win as she goes up the pageant ladder into the smaller pool of contestants.
Many in her extended family, pageant supporters, such as Claudia Self, friends such as Jackie and Taylor Martin and boyfriend Andy Bickar, owner and chef at Rediviva restaurant in Aberdeen, are heading to Atlantic City, N. J., to lend support as she goes for the top of the pageant world.
Also in the audience cheering her on, will be her younger sister, Paige, who has competed against her sister.
It was Lauren who first brought the family into the pageant world. As a 15-year-old sophomore at Aberdeen High School, she decided to compete in the Miss Grays Harbor Outstanding Teen pageant in 2007. She placed second. The next year she won.
In 2010, competing to qualify for the Miss Washington pageant, she won the title of Miss Tahoma in a “sweeper,” or open pageant, which she qualified for by being a previous title winner. She was fourth runnerup in the sweeper pageant. In 2011, she won the Miss Seattle crown. (Residency requirements in these contests are somewhat flexible).
In 2012, she studied abroad in Zambia and Turkey.
She won the Miss Grays Harbor crown in February of 2013. She competed in the Miss Washington pageant that year against her sister, Paige, who was Miss Apple Valley.
Part of the family festivities this week involves celebrating Paige’s 20th birthday.
Lauren Kuhn thought she was done with pageants, her mother said Friday. She decided to volunteer at the local pageant office in Massachusetts, thinking her experience might help. She also thought she’d make friends. It didn’t take pageant organizers long to spot a winner. They asked her to run.
She debated, then decided. “She knew what she was getting into. She wasn’t really sure how she would do on a different coast,” her mother said. First, she won Miss Collegiate Area, then took the top state prize.
Now, at 23, Lauren Kuhn is poised to try on the biggest crown of them all.
Monday, was her interview day. Tuesday, is the talent contest. She is one of two pianists in the whole pageant where 27 are vocalists and 20 are dancers, her mother said. She arranged and will play “Valse dramatico” by Melody Bober. “She jazzed it up,” said her mother. Her coach jazzed it up even a little more.
“Inside Edition” has already interviewed her while she was playing the piano, her mother said.
Wednesday and Thursday nights bring stage competitions for evening gowns, swimsuits and on stage questions.
Then, if all goes well, Lauren will stand poised to win the whole contest — her one and only shot at this one. “This is like the Super Bowl for us,” her mother said.
As far as could be ascertained, Lauren Kuhn is the second woman from Grays Harbor to compete. Gail Hannuk, a Harbor native who died in 2006, was Miss Washington in 1961.
“You never know, we’ll see what the judges think. We think she’s fantastic. We’re maybe a little biased,” Dawn Kuhn said. “She’s a great girl, they’d be lucky to have her.”
The Kuhn family reminded Harborites to help vote Kuhn into the Top 15. Just go to missamerica.org and vote for her to be in the Top 15.
Friday, she will also help raise funds for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, which includes Seattle Children’s Hospital at the Miracle Mile Walk. Go to Facebook and “like” Dr. Jenny Chang’s pages: Chang Dental Group Boston and Change Dental Group Natick.
Chang, one of her Harvard professors, will donate $2 for each like.
Bickar, a 2000 graduate of Aberdeen High School, usually stays out of the audience because Kuhn loses when he is there. Sunday night, he will join the family and be there to cheer her on.
“I am attending. Sometimes you just need to forgo superstition. Everything that is important to Lauren is important for me to be at, too. We have always been extremely supportive of each others’ goals,” he said.
The pageant is to be broadcast on KOMO-TV, Sunday evening. Pre-pageant starts at 8 p.m., the contest runs from 9 to 11 p.m. in tape delay, so NO spoilers.
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