Miss Minnesota 2021

 I'm a little late with my annual posting of the Miss Minnesota crowning video, so here it is. 

Congratulations again to Elle Mark, a native of Red Wing, MN, who was crowned on Friday, June 25! And as has been the tradition since 2015 when I became an official co-host of Miss MN festivities, the newly crowned titleholder made her first media appearance on my radio show the following Sunday. 

Elle then appeared on the Up and At 'Em show podcast the following Tuesday morning with yours truly serving as a guest co-host. 

You'll notice in Elle's crowning video that I was not the one making the grand announcement of who was the new Miss Minnesota. This year was a bit different given the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic when planning for the competition began in late 2020/early 2021. Not knowing if we would be at full capacity for in-person events come summer of 2021, the Miss MN organization arranged a live stream of finals night. As such, South Dakota TV personality Shawn Cable was given the honors to emcee that evening given he has many years experience in front of a camera (plus he was asked to sing that night, which completely disqualified me from being considered 😆). However, I was still privileged to cohost Thursday evening's preliminary competition with my regular co-emcee (and Miss Minnesota 2003) Megan Torgerson, so I still felt a special connection to this 2021 class. 

Anyhow, Minnesota has once again been blessed with a phenomenal titleholder to represent our state at Miss America this December. I'm so pumped for Elle's year and all she has in store for her time in this role. 

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