Katerina Katakalides of Whitestone has participated in several pageants and won her share.<\/p>\n
But some things were still the same when her name was called last month to represent Queens this coming June in the Miss New York contest, where the winner will go on to compete for Miss America.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the most exhilarating moment,\u201d Katakalides told the Chronicle in an interview last Friday. \u201cI\u2019ve been competing in pageants, I think, since I was 15 years old. And I always say you lose more than you win. So it makes those moments you finally achieve that goal even more exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from going to college in Minnesota and a brief stint in California, Katakalides, 27, is a lifelong Queens resident. Her family\u2019s business, Citadel Foods, a food distributor in Long Island City, was founded by her grandfather 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud to be representing Queens,\u201d she said, her smile audible over the phone.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s pageant is being held in Rockland County on June 27.<\/p>\n
Her service initiative is Healing Hearts Through Homes, a program in multiple states that helps those who may be homeless because of alcohol or drug addition. Others are LGBT clients who have been kicked out of their homes by family. She is a board member of the Sherlock\u2019s Homes Foundation, a national nonprofit that addresses similar issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work on fixing the broken relationships,\u201d she said. \u201cWe offer support, education opportunities, employment assistance … You can\u2019t cure homelessness with a band-aid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss America has been switching emphasis on the scholarship competition than the pageant.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York is the only state that lets you use the scholarship to pay off your student loans,\u201d she said \u201cI love that about New York!\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the talent competition, Katakalides is among a growing number of women who enter under the category of HERstory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s taken from \u2018history,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s for women who have a nonperforming talent that they can showcase on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The genesis, she said, was a recent Miss California pageant in which a contestant was an award-winning equestrian.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe went on stage in her equestrian outfit and spoke about her accolades when it comes to riding,\u201d the Whitestone resident said. \u201cAnd you can\u2019t get a horse on stage. And she actually won the entire thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katakalides\u2019 talent will combine her passion for cooking with a little bit of science and her professional training in marketing to drive it all home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be making fruit caviar,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou isolate the liquid from fruit \u2014 you make fruit juice. You can blend it with different components. Calcium is one we use. You use a pipette and a dropper and you drip the juice into the calcium bath. It solidifies into these little jell-like bulbs of fruit. It\u2019s really fun to watch. It\u2019s colorful and pretty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted something fun and engaging. I want people to say \u2018Wow, that was awesome!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The five-day competition begins June 23, but her preparation already began months ago in terms of diet, exercise, community service, outfit selection and even practicing her walk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lifestyle change,\u201d Katakalides said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just doing one thing for the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Katerina Katakalides of Whitestone has participated in several pageants and won her share. But some things were still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[76436,76437,9,24,63,122,124,123,47723],"class_list":{"0":"post-190969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-katerina-katakalides","9":"tag-miss-new-york","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-queens","14":"tag-queens-headlines","15":"tag-queens-news","16":"tag-whitestone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}