Advertisement Somebody at Smaby’s first Miss Wisconsin competition noticed the unnaturally large and exuberant crowd of supporters, which grew each time she returned to Oshkosh to try for the Miss Wisconsin crown. Other contestants grew to dread being introduced after Smaby as their names would inevitably be drowned out by the cheers of the Smaby Nation.
 |
The many supporters of Miss Wisconsin Kristina Smaby are known as the Smaby Nation. Many members of the Smaby Nation gathered Sunday at Viterbo University for a reception for Smaby, a senior at Viterbo. More than 200 supporters will be in the audience Jan. 30 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas when Smaby competes for the title of Miss America. For more photos from the reception, check out the >new online photo gallery. Also, check out the interactive version of the above photo with magnifying "lens."
Photo by Randy Erickson |
“We already know we will have the largest cheering section,” said Shayna Stellflue, a key organizer of the group, making sure the Smaby Nation is armed with buttons, posters and signs supporting Smaby.
More than 135 La Crosse area residents are signed up for tickets to the Jan. 30 Miss America Pageant, and with the supporters from other areas of the state, there will be more than 200 people cheering on Smaby.
That kind of support is highly unusual, and former Miss Holmen director (and former Miss Holmen) Kim Jackson said it’s inspired by Smaby’s character.
“It’s her genuine good heart. She’s very giving. She’s very real. People are just drawn to her,” Jackson said. “It really does amaze me how she touches the hearts of all the people she comes in contact with.”
Smaby’s supporters were out in full force for a send-off reception Sunday at Viterbo University’s Fine Arts Center. There were family and friends, of course, but Smaby Nation members say Smaby has this way of making them feel like family, whether they’re her dance students, pageant participants, directors and volunteers or people affiliated with La Crosse’s Oktoberfest.
In fact, Miss Wisconsin field director Steve McCoy said when he goes to national meetings for the Miss America program, people always remember Smaby and ask about her. “Smaby Nation is bigger than Holmen, it’s bigger than the Coulee Region, it’s bigger than Wisconsin,” McCoy said.
Jackson was Miss Holmen pageant director when Smaby made her first try for the title just before she started her senior year at Holmen High School. Jackson remembered encountering Smaby before that when Jackson went to the school to visit her friend, HHS teacher Kam-Lin Roswall. As Smaby walked away, Jackson remembers Roswall saying, “There goes a future Miss Holmen.”
Smaby didn’t win the Miss Holmen crown on her first try, though. After Smaby came in first runner-up, Jackson said demonstrated her determination to come back and win by working extremely hard on her interview skills. “That girl went out and practice interviewed with everybody in the Coulee Region,” she said.
Supporters say once Smaby sets a goal, it’s as good as done, because she won’t quit until it’s accomplished. It took four trips to the state pageant for her to achieve her goal of winning the Miss Wisconsin crown and competing in Miss America, but not reaching her goal was never an option.
Smaby Nation members say perseverance has been a cornerstone of Smaby’s character. “Things didn’t always come easy to her, but she never gave up on anything and became excellent at everything as a result,” said Misty Lown, owner of Misty’s Dance Unlimited and Smaby’s dance teacher from the time Smaby was 7 years old. “Kristina has stood out from day one. With her it was always great attitude followed by excellence.”
Smaby was one of the first students to sign up with Lown when she opened her own studio 12 years ago and was the youngest teacher (15) Lown has ever hired. Smaby was a natural teacher, and a large portion of the Smaby Nation is made up of youngsters who had her as a dance instructor. They called her — and still call her — “Miss Kristina.”
At Sunday’s reception at Viterbo, about a dozen of her former students gave tributes to Miss Kristina while Smaby changed into the gowns and cocktail dresses she will wear next week as she competes at the Miss America Pageant with 52 other young women. One girl said she and her sister dressed up as Miss Kristina for Halloween one year. One went as Miss Holmen and one went as Miss Wisconsin.
Dancers learned more than how to dance from Smaby. The still young girls, well-spoken beyond their years, said they learned patience, kindness, caring and determination from Miss Kristina. One of the dancers, McCoy’s daughter Sheridan, said when she was assigned to write an essay on the Nobel Prize for Friendship, she wrote about Smaby.
“Kristina is a loving and caring person and never puts herself first … when everyone else is happy, she is too,” said Sheridan, a 13-year-old Holmen Middle School student.
Sheridan’s 10-year-old sister, Shealyn, also is going to Las Vegas with the McCoy family to cheer on her former dance teacher. If — or she might prefer “when” — Smaby is announced as the new Miss America, “I will freak,” Shealyn said, “freak out and be happy.”
A big part of what made Smaby a great dance teacher is the example she set for the students. “If she sees a student discouraged by slow progress, she’s quick to remind people that she took Ballet 3 three times before passing,” Lown said. “And now she’s competing at Miss America as a ballet dancer. Talk about perseverance.”
Many of the dancers were veterans of the Connecting Generations program Smaby started as a junior in high school. Through Connecting Generations, which also is the title of her Miss Wisconsin platform, Smaby took her young dancers to nursing homes, where they performed for residents and often became pen pals with them.
Connecting Generations was something Smaby started before she ever entered a pageant, and bringing old and young generations together is a passion Smaby plans to continue after she earns her business management degree at Viterbo University. Her goal is to start a nationwide chain of intergenerational day care centers.
Although Smaby won the Miss Wisconsin title as Miss Madison-Capital City, her fourth local title, she’s still Miss Holmen as far as a lot of people are concerned, including Marna Holley.
Holley, director of the marketing department at Gundersen Lutheran, was the first director of the Miss Holmen pageant and oversaw it for many years, and she’s very excited to see someone who once wore the Miss Holmen crown be in the running for Miss America.
“Once you’re a Miss Holmen, you’re always a Miss Holmen,” Holley said. “Kristina from the time she was Miss Holmen, you could tell she had an enthusiasm and energy about her and a drive about her that was undeniable.”
While Smaby is driven and focused, Holley said it’s not on herself that she focuses but on how she can help others. “She’s approached this whole program not full of herself, but outwardly directed,” Holley said.
The current Miss Holmen, Elizabeth Kramer, said that even with her busy schedule as Miss Wisconsin, Smaby has been generous with her time as a mentor. It started after Kramer competed in the Miss Holmen for the first time in 2007 and didn’t win.
“She has always encouraged me to pursue my dream to become Miss Holmen, and I am proud to say she had a hand in me achieving my dream,” Kramer said. “She is always there to offer her support, and I hope she knows how much I appreciate all of it. I truly could not ask for a better mentor than Kristina.”
As Smaby’s longtime dance teacher, employer and mentor, Lown has a lot of connections with Smaby, including in the pageant world: They were crowned Miss La Crosse Oktoberfest exactly 10 years apart.
Lown knows Smaby well and has a pretty good idea what inspires a following like the Smaby Nation. “Bottom line: character. She walks her talk,” Lown said. “She is the same person with or without the crown. She makes time for people and treats every person, regardless of age or position, with respect. What else could you ask for in a student, employee, friend or teacher?”
Or a Miss America?
KRISTINA SMABY
