You may recall me saying earlier last week that Miss Wisconsin had made her case to be the next Miss America and I wasn’t off base. Miss Wisconsin Laura Kaeppeler was crowned Miss America 2012 Saturday night at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Laura’s triumphant walk across the stage was just the beginning of a journey that will include traveling 20,000 miles a month, living out of two 50 pound suitcases and waking up in a different city every day for a year.
In her travels she will speak to audiences about her platform Circles of Support – Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents and acting as the official National Goodwill Ambassador for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Laura’s platform was inspired by her own personal experience growing up with an incarcerated father. Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals, is the national platform partner of the Miss America Organization.
Miss America 2012 is a graduate of Carthage College. Her scholastic ambition is to obtain a Master’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology and she ultimately hopes to become a speech therapist. Along with the title of Miss America 2012, Laura won a $50,000 scholarship to continue her education. For the talent portion of the competition, Laura performed an operatic rendition of “Il Bacio” that won her a preliminary talent award Tuesday night.
