The Miss America Outstanding Teen Lottery!!

On Tuesday, July 13th, at three o'clock PM mountain time, it was time for one of the most exciting, yet somewhat stressful parts of pageantry to begin.....choosing my contestant number! Tami, Jaylee, my mom, my cousin Terry, and I met up at the Moxie Java in Boise and got ready for the games to begin. Creating the contestant order for nationals is a whole lot different than it is at state! We sat with my laptop on the Miss America OT website and waited patiently for the screen to change into a chart. After that, certain state names would pop up and that sate's representative/contestant would have 5 minutes to call and say what spot they would like to be in. There is 3 groups to choose from, the red, white, and blue groups, and each has a different schedule of competition during pageant week in Orlando. Before the lottery, I had been thinking for several weeks about what spot would be my ideal position. I preferred the competition order of the white group, and also really like the color white. As the lottery began, we expected to be called pretty early, but as time rolled on, we started to get a little antsy. An hour passed...then two....and finally, at around 5:30 my mom's cell phone rang. Only a few spots remained, but one of them was surprisingly close to my ideal number in the white group. I answered it and was asked my name. After I answered my name, I was stunned out of my mind to hear "Hi Katy, this is Caressa Cameron, MISS AMERICA "!!!!! I was so excited and did't quite know what to say at the time, but I managed to pull myself together and say what spot I would like. Then I got to talk to Miss America's Outstanding Teen, Jeanette Morelan!!! Idaho ended up being one of the last ten to pop up on the screen, which was very different than prior years, where it was one of the first ten! The wait and anticipation was all worth it and I got the spot of

White #6!!!! It was one of the very last spots in the white group, so it was very exciting to get it! We all had a blast and it made me look forward to nationals even more!

Your Friend,

Katy Lootens

MIOT 2010

On the phone with Miss America!!!