July 2010
Hello everyone!
It has been ages since I blogged! There are so many things
to talk about, comment on, and think about.
Miss Minnesota
week has come and gone, and I could not be happier for Miss Minnesota 2010,
Miss Kathryn Knuttila. I have spent an entire year getting to know her, and
there is truly not a better example of women across our wonderful state. I love her very much, and I am planning to go
to Las Vegas to see her strut her
stuff across the Miss America stage!
Kaylah and Kathryn at Miss Minnesota Brunch
The week as a whole is something I’m not sure anyone could
describe accurately. It is an experience
that can be understood only by those who have been through it, which probably
explains the best friends I made throughout the entire week. I have never been with a more intelligent,
amazing group of women. Whether
sight-seeing at the Minnesota Zoo or decorating cookies and touring Gillette’s
Children’s Specialty Healthcare, I was impressed time and time again by all of
the women around me.
The pace was crazy; usually every day began around 8 a.m.,
and we would not get back until almost 11 p.m.
One scary thing for me was losing my voice in the first couple of days
we were all together. As a singer, I
know just about every trick in the book, so lots of honey, ginger tea, and
whispering gave me my voice back by the time prelims started.
On way to rehearsal
Being on the Miss Minnesota stage was incredible. After preparing for months, it was surreal
that the competition had finally begun!
I thoroughly enjoyed having swimsuit and evening gown the first night,
followed by talent and onstage question on Friday. Going into Saturday night, I was excited,
nervous, and ready to finally know the answer to the question I had been
thinking about since I was crowned Miss Capital
City in October.
Top 10!
Making the Top Ten was fabulous, and I can truly say I
poured my heart and soul onto the stage that night. Holding onto Lexy, Miss Northwest, and Aja,
Miss South Central, during the announcement of Top Five was great since I was
close with both women. Not having my
name called brought on many different emotions, but the best moment for me was
looking out into the audience and immediately making eye contact with my
mom. She mouthed “it’s okay” to me, and
I just smiled because never has a simple phrase made more sense.
Throughout this year, I have learned so much about myself
and about people around me. I know what
kinds of qualities make someone trustworthy and what makes someone
supportive. I know when someone has my
best interests at heart and when criticism comes from a productive place. I know who I am, what I believe in and what I
value. Never in my life have I been more
proud of who I am, and in many different ways I owe this organization for that
feeling.
My new best friends!
I am looking forward to my remaining months as Miss Capital
City and visiting with all my friends
as I travel around Minnesota to see
the women who will represent our state in the next Miss Minnesota
pageant. As I see them crowned, I find
myself wondering what their years of service will be like. I cannot wait to see!
Much love, and more updates to come.
Kaylah Dockter
Miss Capital
City 2010
Happy May Everyone!
What a
busy, fun month it has been! My life
has been filled with class, homework, and of course preparing for Miss
Minnesota! Here’s an update…
April began with Easter, which I spent in Stillwater with my
dad’s side of the family. We don’t see
each other very often, so it was great to catch up with my cousins and eat lots
of delicious food. The weekend after Easter, my
sister Queen Kathryn Knuttila, invited me to sing at the church she works at in Frazee,
MN. I’ve never been that far north into
our lovely state, and it was wonderful to spend the weekend with her and
perform! I helped lead Mass, and sang a
solo piece, “Allelujah” by Mozart. That
song is tricky as it features a lot of vocal ornamentation! The congregation was so supportive after we
were finished, and I always enjoy having Kathryn accompany me!
On April 20th (four days before Miss MN
orientation) I was due to give my junior vocal recital at the University of Minnesota. Due to the sheer amount of things I’ve taken
on this semester, my voice teacher and I decided to push it back to May 18th,
and allow a chance for my music to “marinate” (it always amuses me to hear
vocal analogies… I’ve been compared to everything from a not-quite done cake to
a thoroughbred racing horse!) So while I
was disappointed to move it, I have also had some of the best voice lessons
ever in the past few weeks. I am looking
forward to finally performing all my music in two weeks.
Miss Minnesota orientation was a wonderful experience! My parents, Ken and Rynelle, were able
to come with (quite a feat as there are four kids in my family, and someone is
always doing something on the weekends!) and we arrived bright and early to
turn in paperwork and get settled for a fun-filled day! All of the contestants introduced themselves
and their platforms, and it was great to interact with all twenty girls for the
first time. We chose roommates, and I
was thrilled to get Miss Thief River Falls, Kaitlyn Maurstad, as my roommate. Not only will I get the chance to know her
better, she is also singing the piece I performed at Miss Capital City in
October, so we will engage in some opera-talk. Meeting sponsors like Jason Young and Eileen Van
Driest Clift was great, and I cannot wait to see how the photos we took with
Paula Preston turn out. Overall I was
happy to finally turn in my paperwork, find out about the exciting week planned during Miss Minnesota, and to get to know all the great ladies competing for Miss Minnesota. I am now officially counting down the
days till June.
Kaylah with Miss Moorhead and Miss Twin Cities
The last thing April brought was the Walmart/Gillette
Children’s Hospital Walk-a-Thon this past Saturday at Como Park. There were quite a few local
titleholders there, as well as Miss Minnesota herself, Miss Brooke Kilgarriff! When we arrived we signed autographs and took
pictures before Brooke sang the National Anthem. Then we were off! It was extremely windy, but the sun was
shining and the morning warmed up as we went along. Bethany Beniek, Miss Moorhead, made sure we got off
the lake at the right time, and we arrived back to have lunch and sign more
autographs and take more pictures. It
was great meeting the Gillette families, and I am looking forward to visiting them again
during Miss MN week.
(photo from Bethany Beniek)
Kaylah with Miss Minnesota contestants at the
Gillette Children's Hospital walk at Como Park Zoo!
My finals will be over on the 14th of May, until
then I will be heavily focusing on school and making sure I do well on all my
tests. I have a performance of opera scenes
on Saturday May 8th that I am really looking forward to, as well as
my recital on the 18th. Once I am done I am excited
to get back into schools to continue presenting my bullying platform, as well as
continue preparing for Miss Minnesota.
2010 Miss Minnesota Contestants!
Until next time!
Much love,
Kaylah
Hello Everyone!!
Here’s how I know I am a full-time college student… its been
two months since I’ve last updated my blog. Some wonderful things have been
happening so I will do my best to recap everything.
February ended with the Sweeps pageant, and we finally added
the final two girls who will compete for Miss Minnesota. What a wonderful pageant to be at. It was great seeing all the ladies compete,
and they all had made great progress since I had seen them on stage
previously. Congrats to Siri Freeh and
Liz Abbas, I cannot wait to get to know you both at orientation and during Miss
MN week.
Kaylah with local titleholders at the Sweeps Pageant
Also in February I had the chance to participate in National
Pancake Day at the Bloomington IHOP.
What a fun day! When I arrived at
eleven, Miss Minnesota, Brooke, and Miss Minnesota’s Outstanding Teen, Katlyn
were both there. It was great seeing
both of them, and they were busy interacting with all the customers. I figured that since I have hosted at a
restaurant before I would ask the manager Frank if I could host for him. He readily agreed, and I spent my time up
front greeting customers who either had looks of interest on their faces or
confusion as they approached me. Luckily
I was able to explain why there we all had crowns on our heads, and many of
them donated to CMN. I even walked away
with a job offer from Frank after I completed my volunteering.
Kaylah, Katlyn Ziegler & Brooke Kilgarriff
at IHOP in Bloomington
March saw me at the Royal Experience, an event hosted by
Stacie McBride-Cox at her church. She
had a few titleholders there as well as Brooke to work with groups of girls
throughout the night. Our topic was
inner beauty, and I was assigned a group of fourth and fifth graders for the
night. Having two younger sisters
myself, I always loved playing Barbie, usually using them as my dolls. It was so much fun to do hair and makeup with
the girls, and to drive home the message that no matter how beautiful you are
outside, it means nothing unless you are beautiful from the inside.
Kaylah attended the Royal Experience
March was also my time for Spring Break, which was much
needed! I am a full time student and am
currently taking 18 credits, which does not leave me a lot of free time, and I
also serve at a restaurant on the weekends.
I was excited to sleep in, and also to visit elementary schools and talk
about bullying with fourth graders. My
platform is very close to my heart, as I was subject to just about every type
of bullying you can image throughout my middle school years. I was very curious to see what exactly kids
these days think about bullying, and I definitely received answers to my
question as I presented. We worked on
defining bullying, and talked about ways the kids could help in a
situation. I then acted out some
different scenarios that they may come across, and we identified who was being
bullied, how that would make them feel, and how the onlookers could have helped
in the situation. We then ended with a
game where I tossed a ball around the classroom and each person had to say
something they valued about themselves.
It is my firm belief that bullies pick on other people because they do
not value themselves. On the other hand,
those being bullied should value themselves as well, as that only adds to their
self-confidence.
Kaylah talks about bullying to elementary students
After a quick spring break trip to Captiva Island in Florida with my family,
it was back to the daily rhythm of my life at the beginning of April. I am currently preparing my junior recital
for my vocal performance degree. It has
been a challenging few weeks, but I am determined to give the best recital I
can in exactly 11 days from now. In between classes, singing, and working, I
have been polishing up my paperwork for Miss Mn… I cannot believe we are
already having orientation in 2 weeks!!
I promise to be more regular in the future, and keep
everyone updated as Miss Minnesota draws closer.
Love,
Kaylah
FEBRUARY 2010
Happy February!!
Although February is just getting underway, already I can
tell it will be an exciting month!
Here’s an update of what I’ve been up to the past couple of days!
This past Friday I was invited to sing at an event called
“Voices of Hope”. This was held at my
old high school, Eastview, in Apple Valley, and is an all day sing-a-thon to
benefit the Angel Foundation. My voice
teacher and I sang last year, and we were very excited to be asked back
again! Unfortunately she was unable to
attend due to some scheduling conflicts, so I performed solo. I arrived at Eastview Friday night and was brought
to a rehearsal room where I met the accompanist who would be playing for
me. She was a recent graduate of St.
Olaf, and we had mutual friends in common (it’s definitely a small world)! Hannah was wonderful, and I just want to
thank her for playing so beautifully for me!
I sang a new piece I’ve been working on, as well as an old favorite “O
Mio Babbino Caro” (which also happens to be the aria I sang at Miss CC !). I had such a blast performing and seeing my
former teachers and even a few of my high school friends. Thank you to Ms. Sagen for having me perform,
I cannot wait to come back again next year!
Kaylah with her high school instructor Ms. Sagen; and performing at the
Voices of Hope concert at Eastview High School in Eagan
The next night I was able to attend the Miss Coon Rapids
pageant. I was looking forward to seeing
the other local titleholders, as well as finding out who the new Miss Coon
Rapids would be! Unfortunately on the
way up to the high school I got a little lost.
I am a little bit directionally challenged, but when I stopped off at a
gas station to plead for help, the man working assured me my Mapquest
directions were not accurate. He wrote
out a new set of directions for me, and I left feeling a lot better about my
navigating abilities! Once I finally
managed to locate Coon Rapids High School, the pageant was just about to
begin. What a surprise to see Miss
America’s Outstanding Teen there!
Jeanette is so eloquent and sang beautifully, I was shocked to find out
she is only 15! I was extremely
impressed by the eight ladies competing.
They all were poised and confident, and it was great getting to see some
of my fellow competitors from Miss CC/TC!
Congrats to Allison Lordbock, Miss Coon Rapids 2010, I am looking
forward to getting to know you over the next couple of months!
Kaylah with the newly crowned Miss Coon Rapids and
visiting local Miss Minnesota Titleholders
I am now back at school after a very fun-filled weekend, and
am getting ready for everything February has in store for me! There is International Pancake Day on the 23rd,
and I will be appearing at the IHOP by the Mall of America from 11-1 that day,
so feel free to stop in and say hello!
Later this month I also have my photo shoot for Miss Minnesota, and am
in the middle of preparing for that right now!
As part of my vocal performance degree I will be giving a recital this
coming April, and am currently focused on getting all of my repertoire learned
and memorized.
I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful weekend, and please
check back in the future for more from me!
Happy (early) Valentine’s Day!
Love,
Kaylah
December 2009 and January 2010
Hello Again!!
The end of December and January definitely were busy times
for me! I finished up all my finals
(what a relief!) and was so happy to have my director Kathy come hear me
perform my final scenes for a class I participated in called Opera
Workshop. I sang Maria in a West Side
Story scene as well as Fiordiligi in a scene from a Mozart opera called Cosi
fan tutte. I enjoyed both roles, they
contrasted very nicely!
Kaylah during her Opera Workshop
at University of Minnesota
A few days after I completed my finals, I was invited to
sing at an apartment complex for seniors called Summerhill. My grandparents are both residents, and have
been bursting with pride since I won Miss Capital City in October! They have morning coffee every Tuesday, and
asked me to come and perform for them and their friends. If anyone reading this is a singer, I am sure
they will agree with me when I say that performing for an audience of seniors
is one of the most enjoyable experiences.
They are always so responsive and excited to listen! So that particular Tuesday morning I went and
picked up my accompanist Steve and away we went. Once there, my grandparents brought me into
their great room, and it was packed with people! It turns out they had made signs and advertised
my coming for a few weeks, and said this was the best turnout for Tuesday
morning coffee ever! I was then
introduced by my grandpa, and sang a few songs I had worked on throughout the
semester, as well as my favorite Christmas song “O Holy Night”. It was a wonderful, stress-free performance
that perfectly capped off my fall semester of school, and I want to say thank
you to the residents of Summerhill for having me!!
Kaylah with her grandparents at the Summerhill Senior Center
during her Christmas appearance!
In January I started work on my platform, as my directors
and I want to go in a different direction over the next couple of months. I cannot wait to get started on
everything!! January was also the month
of Miss America, and Brooke’s send-off party!
Although the local titleholders did not end up getting to go to
Gilette’s as our contact was sick, we did get to have a one-on-one with Brooke
and some of the state board. She had
great advice to give, and we had a blast asking her about her preparations for
Miss MN! Seeing her outfits and
watching her perform that day was so inspiring, and she did an amazing job
representing Minnesota at Miss America!!
Kaylah with some local titleholders at
Miss Minnesota's Miss America Send Off Party!
Not long after Brooke’s party, my friend Aja Majkrzak, Miss
South Central, invited me to judge a talent competition at a local middle
school. Although we were there also
representing the School of Music at the U of M and did not have our crowns and
sashes on, one of the girls found out we were both titleholders and had a few
questions for us! It was great judging,
and we saw over 50 middle school students throughout the day! It was so hard to pick those that would go on
to perform in a public concert, and I just want to say congrats to everyone
that participated!
I think that’s just about everything… check back later for
more updates!
Love,
Kaylah
December, 2009
Hello again!!
I can barely believe that it is almost time for
Christmas!! I had a wonderful
Thanksgiving at home with my family, and am definitely ready for another break.
Since I’ve last blogged I had the opportunity to go to the
Miss Mankato pageant (and make my first appearance as Miss Capital City!). What a fabulous experience! Judy and her granddaughter Teiona accompanied
me to the pageant, and it was great to see the girls competing, as a few of
them competed with me at Miss TC/CC.
Brooke, Miss Minnesota, was also there and she performed her Miss
America talent piece for the audience, and that was such a treat to hear her! Congratulations to Miss Mankato 2010 Samantha
Phillippi, I am looking forward to getting to know you over the year!
Next on the appearance schedule was Brooke’s CD release
party held at the Best Buy Rotunda at the Mall of America. We had a pre-event gathering with families
from Gillette’s Children’s Hospital, and many of the other local titleholders
were there. It was great to mingle with
the kids, and see all the hard work Brooke has put in to raising money for the
Children’s Miracle Network. The band
Select Three performed, as well as Miss Minnesota 1992 Jo Bender!
After Brooke’s event was over, Miss Twin
Cities and I had a little break before it was our opportunity to perform. We relaxed with our lovely directors Kathy & Judy, (and we met some nice people in the food court who wanted our autographs!) before we had to change for
our performance.
Miss Minnesota local titleholders, Miss Minnesota and staff
from Panda Express at Brooke's reception at the Mall of America
Singing in the Best Buy
Rotunda was such a surreal experience for me.
Kathryn is such a dynamic performer at the piano, and I was so honored
to have her accompany me! We had been
meeting up rehearsing over the past couple of weeks, and it was great to see
our hard work pay off!! Christmas is my
favorite holiday because of all the fun music, although I have not had many
opportunities to perform my favorites.
Having my family and friends there to hear me meant so much, and I would
just like to say thank you to anyone who stopped and listened for a while!!
Kaylah performing at the Mall of America
Miss Twin Cities, Kathryn Knuttila accompanied Kaylah on her vocal performance!
Next up for me involves a lot of studying for my finals
before I am off for Christmas break on the nineteenth (only 13 days from now…
not that I am counting J). I cannot wait for break to start getting more
involved with everything Miss Capital City!!
Check back for more updates in the near future!!
Until then, Happy Holidays! 
Love,
Kaylah