For Katie Stam, who is accustomed to traveling 20,000 miles a month and working seven days a week, participating in two parades on the Fourth of July will be a cakewalk. Miss America 2009 will ride as grand marshal at the Pacific Palisades Americanism Parade at 2 p.m. after starting the day in Huntington Beach. From the moment the former Miss Indiana triumphantly walked across the stage in January’the final night of the Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas’her year-long journey began. ‘When it was down to the final three, Miss Tennessee, Miss California and me, I didn’t know which one of us was going to win,’ Stam says. ‘But I did know I would do a good job if I were to win. I was confident of what I had to offer: a good role model, a good spokesperson, and I could handle the travel and exposure.’ Now 4 1/2 months later, Stam is hanging in there. Crisscrossing the country by commercial coach and car, she is engaged morning through night speaking to audiences to promote community service, signing autographs, and supporting the pageant’s sponsors, including Planet Hollywood and fashion designer Joseph Ribkoff.   During a telephone interview on Monday from Las Vegas, Stam told the Palisadian-Post that she had visited six states in the last week. ‘The great thing about what I do is the variety of people I get to meet,’ she says. ‘We were in Delaware doing an autograph session for Miss Delaware and there were men and women, all ages, every race, aspiration and career. People always have something that they can relate to, whether it’s the pageant’s emphasis on education, or service, or if they are from that particular state or if they have family members who are in some way related.’ Stam, 22, is the first Miss America from Indiana in the contest’s 88-year history, which, she says, accounts for her completely booked schedule. ‘Even when I go home to Seymour, I really don’t go home; I stay in a hotel and work just as I do in other places,’ Stam says. ‘It’s extremely tough to stay in contact with my friends. When I do have some time, I usually spend it with my parents or siblings.’ The youngest of four children, Stam grew up in a farm town in south-central Indiana, halfway between Indianapolis and Louisville, which she quips is the part of the state that is referred to as the ‘lost southern state.’ She attended her local high school and is 13 units shy of graduating from the University of Indianapolis in communication with an emphasis in electronic media. As with many little girls, Stam was drawn by the glamour of the pageant. ‘It’s something I always wanted to do; I looked up to the title and prestige.’ But as she grew older and learned about the duties and the advantages, she set her goal. The program offers a $50,000 scholarship and allows the winner to use her stature to address community service organizations, business and civic leaders and the media about her personal platform issue, which must have relevance to our society. Stam also crystallized her ambition to work in broadcasting in eighth grade, when she found her role model, Katie Couric. In college, she has won a number of broadcasting awards, including first-place honors in the Indiana Association of Broadcasters News Anchor, News Reporter and Corporate Video categories. Her scholarship equals her talent, as she retains her place on the Dean’s List and Academic Honor Roll. Stam contends that winning Miss America has little to do with the competition we viewers see on stage. ‘I think the judges choose based on the person you are, which they assess from the interview. They want a well-rounded person, to see what you’re passionate about and what drives you.’ Each contestant was interviewed by each of the seven judges in a 10-minute, one-on-one session. All questions are on the table, including background and beliefs. Stam was asked her opinion on abortion, stem-cell research and the separation of church and state. ‘The organizers encourage us to stick up for our beliefs, to be confident and not to give an answer that we think the judges want to hear,’ she says, emphasizing that she never once formulated her answers beforehand, but researched them so that she knew what she believed. ‘These topics don’t often come up in conversation on a daily basis. Thinking about a subject, researching it and then having an opinion makes you a stronger person.’ Stam’s main platform is taking on the mantle of National Goodwill Ambassador for Children’s Miracle Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals. In March, she met President Barack Obama when Children’s Miracle brought 50 children, one from each state, to the White House for a tour and a conversation with the president. ‘I had about a 20-minute personal chat with him.’ Stam recalls. ‘I don’t remember what I asked him, but I do remember what a lot of the kids asked. One kid wanted to know when he was coming to visit him and ride horses and play basketball. Mr. Obama celebrated with them, honored them and talked to them.’ While days are long and schedules often change at the last minute, Stam says that she does the best she can to ‘get as much sleep as possible, eat from every single food group when I can, and drink lots of water. On long travel days, I try to catch a nap in the backseat or listen to music. My iPod is loaded with everything from country to classical, to oldies, Barbra Streisand and Disney music. I just kind of zone out and relax. And on the days when your body is exhausted, it’s exhausted. Those are the days you just have to rely on adrenaline.’ She adds, ‘I think that anyone can look at this job and read media interviews, plot the miles of travel, but until you actually live it, and experience it first hand, you don’t know what it feels like.’ Stam is looking forward to greeting parade spectators on July 4, with a little bit more than the ‘queen’s’ wave. ‘It’s so funny, we often joke around about the ‘queen’s’ wave, screwing in a light bulb with a stiff arm. But, during a parade [when the process slows down or stops], I love talking to people, asking them how they’re doing, connecting that way.’
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