Lodi native crowned Miss California

Posted: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 9:30 am

By Danielle Vaughn/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Lodi native Mackenzie Freed was “overwhelmed with emotions” after being crowned the 2018 Miss California during the 94th annual competition held at the William Saroyan Theatre in Fresno on Saturday evening.

“It was so surreal,” Freed said. “I competed with 54 other contestants, and every single girl there goes away with the hope that you will walk away with the crown at the end of the week because we wouldn’t put in all of the effort, all the time and all of the preparation that it requires to be Miss California, if we didn’t really truly want to win, but you never expect to win. Then all of a sudden you win.”

The 23-year-old won a total of $23,300 in scholarships, $23,000 for her Miss California win and $300 for her preliminary win in the lifestyle and fitness in swimsuit phase of competition on Thursday evening. She competed as Miss Treasure Island 2018, and for her talent she performed a vocal piece.

This was Freed’s fourth attempt at the crown and last year she managed to place as second runner-up. Freed went in to the pageant with high hopes of doing better this time around.

“There was always the hope and the expectation that you continue to improve each time that you go to compete, and you get feedback from the people that watch and you change and tweak your preparation in order to be your best self and prepare as best as you can, so I was hopeful,” Freed said. “I never expect anything because it’s so difficult. We had so many incredible contestants and you never know. We had an arbitrary panel of six strangers that I’ve never met before, and I’m trying to convince them that I’m the best person for the job within a very limited amount of time. I’m so glad that they agreed that I was the best person for the job.”

For Freed, the most difficult part of preparing for this year’s competition was balancing that with working full time.

She had just graduated from California Baptist University last May and was employed right away after graduating. She wasn’t expecting balancing the preparation and working to be as difficult as it was.

“It was really difficult over the last several months just trying to balance all of the things that are going on in life all at the same time and being able to dedicate sufficient amounts of time to each thing that quite honestly needed all my attention,” Freed said

According to Freed, she used all her time off work to compete in Miss California. She also spent her lunch breaks catching up on current events to make herself aware of all the issues facing California and the United States. After getting off work, she would head to the pilates studio for a workout. Then she would come home and practice her talent. In an effort to make sure she was adequately prepared for the talent portion of the competition, she took weekly vocal lessons with Michael Scott Harris. Freed spent her weekends going to fittings and looking for garments and accessories for her pageant wardrobe.

With so many other worthy women competing for the title, Freed said she strived to remain confident in herself and recognize that she was the right person for the job as she competed in the competition. It was also important to her to stay true to herself and remain positive regardless of the outcome.

What Freed enjoyed a lot about competing in Miss California this year was that this year was the last year Miss California held its swimsuit competition. The Miss America Organization announced earlier this year that it would no longer have a swimsuit competition.

“Our Miss California top 15 contestants were the last televised lifestyle, physical fitness and swimsuit ever in the Miss America program. That is such a nostalgic and historic thing to be apart of. It was such an honor,” Freed said.

While she will miss the swimsuit competition, she is also in full support in the new direction the organization is moving in.

Now that Freed has secured the Miss California title, she will go on to compete at the Miss America Competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Sept. 9. Preliminaries begin on Sept. 5. Preparation for the pageant started Sunday when Freed was able to sit down with Mia Bella Couture to design her evening gown for Miss America. She also met with Miss California staff to discuss a game plan for the next couple of months.

“ I cannot wait to have this experience of a lifetime,” she said.

With all the recent changes to the Miss America Organization, Freed said she is really looking forward to being apart of a historic class.

“This is such a special experience that I feel so privileged to have the chance to take part in, and be part of the class that really is changing the era of this almost century-long tradition of the Miss America Organization.,” Freed said. “I think that’s really sobering and very exciting, but at the same time, a nerve racking responsibility to hold as a state titleholder.”

Her platform, is “From Scholarship to Success: Advocating for Women in the Workplace.” She came up with inspiration for her platform after reading “Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook.

“I started reading it, and it completely changed my perspective on the way that we view women in the workplace. It resonated with me in such an personal place that I decided I was going to make it my platform while I competed,” Freed said.

With the platform she will focus on educating women of all ages about the obstacles they’re going to face in the workforce because they are women along with ways to overcome those obstacles.

Freed began competing in the Miss America system when she was 17 years old. It all started when her mother began doing research for scholarships to send her to college. She came across the Miss America system, which is a scholarship organization.

“She found the local competition which was Miss San Joaquin County, and she tried to convince me to do it. I put it off and said no because I did not want to do the talent portion. I was very intimidated by the talent portion,” Freed recalled.

However, her mother was very persistent and convinced her to give the director of the competition a phone call to see what it was all about. Through the phone call she learned the pageant was only two weeks away. In those two weeks she managed to make all the necessary preparations to compete for her first title in the Miss American Organization.

“In two weeks I put together a talent. I borrowed a dress from a friend. I came up with an interview dress, and I threw my self in the whirlwind that came of competition weekend and ended with me being awarded my very first title as Miss San Joaquin County in 2013, and since then I’ve just completely fallen in love with the organization.”

Freed is a graduate of Jim Elliot Christian High School and is the daughter of Lodi residents George and Freddene Freed. She is grateful for all the support she has gotten from the Lodi community over the years.

“I’m incredibly proud to be a Lodi native born and raised, and I can’t wait to make my community proud as I represent the state of California at Miss America,” Freed said.

https://www.lodinews.com/news/article_3d623bb6-7e92-11e8-a47b-cf2d9ea8a145.html