By Mimi Darley Dutton | [email protected]

The Draper City Council opened their doors to the public for the first time in more than a year for the purpose of welcoming royalty as the new Miss Draper and her attendants were crowned. Last year’s Miss Draper, Elle Stoker, addressed the crowd and reflected on her reign along with her attendants, Cece Burridge and Madison Gastelo. 

“I feel so lucky, I’ve gotten to have the most wonderful year ever. This crown represents scholarship, leadership, service and poise. Thank you for helping me become my best self,” Stoker said. Her platform involved child custody and abuse allegations, a topic on which she’d written a bill and presented to the Governor’s office as a sophomore. Stoker also founded the nonprofit “Children’s Voice Project” and served as mayor of the Draper Mayor’s Youth Council. “This scholarship and program has really rocket-launched my dreams,” Stoker said. 

Mandi Brady and her mom, Carol Brady, are both former Miss Drapers who now volunteer their time with the scholarship program. Carol held the title in 1972 and Mandi in 1998. Mandi became chair of the program in 2019, at which point she set out to recreate it. It was part of the Miss American pageant system in the past, but it isn’t any longer. “It went from a beauty pageant to what people can do. I know these girls will make a difference,” Mandi said. 

“It changed dramatically for the better…it is now based on merit, individual goals and ambitions,” Mayor Troy Walker said. 

Grace Mead, daughter of Eric and Stephanie Mead, was crowned the new Miss Draper. Mead is a 4.0 student who takes AP and honors level classes, including college-level Chinese. She’ll be a senior at Corner Canyon High School in the fall and her community service initiative is her own creation called “Bright Futures Begin with STEM.” It’s a social media campaign and a website she personally programmed to raise awareness about STEM resources and to spark interest in STEM topics at an early age for children. 

“My inspiration came when I was in seventh grade. We had a guest speaker in one of my classes and she was a biomedical engineer. Her message inspired me so much that day that I wanted that to become my career path. What I would love to do is focus on prosthetics and advancement in that field so that anyone who has lost a limb can feel like they can still accomplish their dreams,” she said.

Mead was recognized in 2018 with a national STEM Excellence award from Century Link and the NBA. At the state level, Mead was selected in 2019 as the first high school-aged ambassador for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development STEM Action Center.

Mead complimented her predecessor, Stoker. “She’s such a great example to me. I’m really blessed that she passed the crown on to me and that I have such a great role model in my life.”

Just one month into her new role, Mead has put together a three-fold action plan for the year ahead. First, she wants to fulfill all the duties assigned to Miss Draper. Second, she has committed to partnering with a different community service organization each month of her reign, beginning in July. Third, she’ll be promoting her Bright Futures Begin with STEM by hosting a bracelet-making activity for students to teach them about DNA. “What I love about this activity is that it shows students how fun science can be and shares a message about how we can embrace our differences and love ourselves,” she said. 

Kiara D’Amico, daughter of Debi and Dino D’Amico, was chosen First Attendant for 2021. D’Amico is a student at Utah State University studying biology, ecology and biodiversity. The focus of her initiative is chronic illness. She’s the president and founder of the USUSA Service Animal Club and fundraising chair for Golden Healer Service Dogs. She was a valedictorian of Corner Canyon High School and an AP Scholar with Distinction. 

Emily Moffat, daughter of Ryan and Lindsey Moffat, was chosen Second Attendant with a focus on suicide awareness and prevention. A recent graduate of Corner Canyon High School, Moffat will pursue a bachelor’s of science in nursing at BYU. She was an honor roll student all four years of her high school career and also team captain of the CCHS Varsity Women’s Lacrosse Team and a member of the Draper Mayor’s Youth Council. 

Mead hopes to help D’Amico and Moffat with their service initiatives while simultaneously working on her own, and she welcomed anyone from the community who wants to assist them in their endeavors to reach out. She also said she and her attendants are open to any activities in the community that they could be a part of. 

“As Miss Draper, I want to continue to build out my service initiative so people in our community can feel inspired to follow their dreams and interests just like that biomedical engineer did for me,” Mead said.