First of all, I was born and raised in Montgomery, my family has a cabin in Elysian, and most of my family lives in Janesville which is also where I attend church at Trinity Lutheran Church. As soon as I was 2 1/2 years old, my life started to get busier and busier. I started dancing when I was 2 1/2 which means I have been dancing for 18 years and I have experience in tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, lyrical, modern, hip hop, and African dance. I was also a model for Toys 'R Us when I was a toddler so like I said, I started a busy life early. Throughout school I was involved in many different activities. I have played violin, piano, percussion and French horn and I was in choir for 4 years. I have been in 14 different theatre productions, where I played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, just to name a couple. I was also involved in Volleyball, Dance Team, Softball, Student Council, Speech, National Honor Society, FFA, People to People Student Ambassadors, and Dance Society at Winona State University. I was also the representative of my hometown for a year and was Miss South Central 2013. I have been skydiving, cliff jumping, and have repelled off of a tower in Italy! I studied American Sign Language for 3 years and I have performed a monologue in the middle of the airport. I have been a lifeguard, worked on a farm, and am now doing landscaping type of work for the City of Burnsville during the summers. I am currently in my third year of college at Winona State University in Rochester, MN where I am earning my Bachelor's degree to be a Registered Nurse.
Now I can tell you how the Miss Mankato pageant day went for me! Pageant day started off great for me. I had a tremendous amount of support pouring in from just about everyone I knew. I even had people that I have only spoken to once sending me good luck messages. I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the support I received that day! Then I had my interview at the Verizon Wireless Center early in the afternoon. To be completely honest, I thought I had the worst interview I have had to date. I walked out of the interview room feeling defeated and I immediately called friends and family to vent my worries to them. I understand that I am my own worst critic but at that point I felt that I ruined the whole pageant for me! However, I decided to shake it off and give it my all on-stage that night! Then, about an hour and a half before the start of the pageant I cut the bottom of my foot open on a broken needle that was stuck in the carpet of the dressing room!! I couldn't believe this was happening to me and I thought maybe it was a sign! Good thing the nurse in me decided to pack a first-aid kit in my pageant supplies! I cleaned it up and put a band-aid on it and hoped it would stop hurting soon. Then came pageant time, and this is when everything got better! I can't express how much joy I have when I am performing on stage but it is where I feel the most comfortable and confident! At the end of it all, came the crowning moment...there were so many nerves and emotions running through me when they were about to call the new Miss Mankato! Then it happened, Jennifer called my name as your new Miss Mankato!! My friends and family started screaming immediately and I felt like I should pinch myself to wake me up from this amazing dream! After tons of pictures and meeting my fellow Miss Minnesota Class of 2015 sisters, I was shipped off to KEYC for a live television interview. It was so cool to see how the news works behind the scenes and I was so excited to have the opportunity to showcase a little bit about myself to the community of Mankato. After the interview I was able to join some of the audience members at Charley's to celebrate! It was great to see Miss Minnesota board members, visiting royalty, my fellow contestants, and my family members there to welcome me into this organization! I ended the night back home were even more family and friends were waiting to congratulate me! I am so grateful for all of the support I have received within the last 2 days. From the pre-pageant "Good Luck" messages to the post-pageant "Congratulations", it has all meant so much to me! Thank you so much for everyone's support and thank you to all of the judges for giving me this amazing opportunity!
I am so excited to get into the Mankato community to promote my platform, "Growing the Distance"- The Importance of Hair Donation, and to do as much community service as possible! My goal is to touch the lives of everyone that lives in Mankato and to make this community proud. I'm excited to work with the outstanding Miss Mankato board and get ready to represent Mankato on the Miss Minnesota stage and hopefully on the Miss America stage as well!!
I really want to incorporate social media into my year as much as possible so everyone can see what I am doing as Miss Mankato! You can follow me on twitter (@LaurenAFellows) and Instagram (MissMankato2015). Please 'like' the Miss Mankato Scholarship Organization on Facebook as well!!
Again, thank you so much for all of the support and thank you to the judges for this opportunity. I promise I won't let you down, and I will do everything in my power to make Mankato proud!
Your New Miss Mankato 2015,
Lauren Fellows
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