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26/08/2017
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LAUREN CARROLL Staff Writer 1 hr ago
Miss New Jersey volunteer hostess Kay Aspell, the so-called ‘good luck’ charm of the competition and the first Miss Rio Grande, says the hosts are ‘the substitute mom, nurse, choreographer director and psychologist’ for the contestants. She hosted Miss New Jersey 2014 and 2015, and current Miss New Jersey Kaitlyn Schoeffel.
Edward Lea / Staff Photographer
When Miss New Jersey Kaitlyn Schoeffel was crowned, dozens of people rushed the stage to congratulate her. From the wings of the stage, hostess Kay Aspell experienced seeing her third hosted contestant walk to the runway and take that next step to Boardwalk Hall.
The volunteer hostesses with the Miss New Jersey competition help with many of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the weeklong event leading up to the final night.
“We’re the substitute mom, nurse, choreographer director and psychologist. … We do it all backstage” said Aspell.
From morning wake-ups to last-minute hem stitching, each hostess is responsible for about three or four contestants. According to their website, the Miss New Jersey Foundation has more than 80 volunteers, many of whom have been involved with similar competitions for more than 30 years. Aspell, 72, has been a hostess for nine years, and this year marked the third Miss New Jersey who has been under her guidance.
“They call me the good-luck hostess now,” she said after the 2017 Miss New Jersey competition. Aspell was the hostess for Miss New Jersey 2014 Cierra Kaler-Jones, followed by Miss New Jersey 2015 Lindsay Giannini.
Though the hostess assignments are random, any young woman paired with Aspell has decades worth of performance and competition knowledge at her disposal.
Starting at the age of 10, Aspell was the first Miss Rio Grande. Aspell said her family was very involved in local competitions as well as Miss America, with her father building floats for the annual parade.
Aspell stayed involved over the years, working with the Miss New Jersey and local competitions, including being the director of the Miss Gloucester County competition for 13 years — where she helped crown Kaitlyn Schoeffel’s mother, Margot, as Miss Gloucester County 1980. The events are just one part of Aspell’s life on the stage. After a career in education, Aspell took the position of director of the Middle Township Performing Arts Center. Her calendar consists of theater camps, show productions, and six local competitions that use the performance space.
Unlike coaches or parents, hostesses usually only work with a contestant for the competition week, but Aspell explained a strong bond is formed in the short time.
“You get to see them on a different level,” said Aspell. “Like with Kaitlyn this year, you feel like, ‘We made it, we did it!’ Now, of course she’s the one who did it, but as a hostess to the winner, you feel like, ‘I had a piece of this,’ because I was with her all week.”
Aspell said she’s looking forward to Miss America week, where she and the other Miss New Jersey hostesses will be staying in Atlantic City and cheering Schoeffel on during the preliminaries.
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