Five years ago, volunteer Mandi Brady transformed Miss Draper from a pageant to a program focused on academics and service. Brady, a former Miss Draper, remains grateful for her own experiences in the pageant circuit, but she envisioned something different for Draper’s royalty.

“I consulted with a human resources professional and she helped me create a program that would give applicants a real-work, real-life experience. We don’t do a stage pageant. Instead, the young women submit a resume, a letter of reference and a community service initiative essay, and they are interviewed by a panel of judges,” Brady said. 

One queen and three or four royalty attendants are selected and the attendants are not ranked. “I feel that’s been an incredible change. They’re more of a team,” Brady said. 

The queen is awarded a $3,000 scholarship and each attendant receives $1,500 or $2,000 depending on the number of attendants chosen. With that scholarship comes a commitment to participating in numerous community events throughout their year of reign. 

This year is the first time a returning royal attendant became queen. Her name is Sloane James and she is Miss Draper 2024. “I feel like I gained a love for Draper, the community, and being able to serve. After such a great experience last year, I wanted to do it again,” James said. 

James, a resident of SunCrest, graduated from Lone Peak High School in 2019. She’ll be a senior at BYU this fall studying art education with plans to become a college professor. James said she was surprised to hear her name announced as queen. “The first feeling was disbelief and the second was just so much excitement and love for everyone that’s helped me to get to that point. It felt more like a team effort than me wining an individual title,” she said.

James is highly complimentary of 2023 queen Anna Page. “The biggest thing I learned from Anna was how a leader needs to be humble. She had no ego attached to her position, and because of that, she was able to do a lot of good for our community. She built up everyone around her,” James said. 

James’s initiative is Heart to Heart: Fostering Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue. “I’ve had the opportunity to live within different cultures, and I’ve met diverse people. I want to help Draper continue in its efforts to welcome everyone. My plan is to have activities and events to help our community come together and get to know each other better,” she said. That plan includes an art show based on unity at the upcoming International Arts & Crafts Festival.

“I feel like art is an amazing way to bring people together,” she said.  

The 2024 royalty attendants are Skylar Zamalloa, Laulea Tavake and Kamryn Stuart. 

Skylar Zamalloa is a 2019 graduate of Corner Canyon High School and a 2024 graduate of the University of Utah. She has a Bachelor’s in Marketing and will pursue an MBA from Utah Valley University beginning this fall. She currently works as marketing coordinator for a Utah company and has learned aspects of business from her parents who own an offroad company. “That’s where I got my love for the automotive industry, so I want to do automotive marketing in the long run,” she said. At the age of 14, while living in California, Zamalloa founded a nonprofit that provided Halloween costumes to kids escaping domestic violence. “It was an eye-opening experience, and it showed me I have a passion for helping others,” she said. 

Zamalloa’s community initiative is called Power UP Girls. “It’s about instilling confidence into young girls. Studies have shown girls’ confidence plummets between the ages of 8-18. My program is about giving girls skills and putting together workshops on how to bring themselves up along with others. Ever since I was a little girl, I was taught confidence is key,” she said. 

Laulea Tavake will be a junior at BYU this fall studying communications disorders, gerontology and family life. She plans to become a speech and language pathologist. A 2020 graduate of Juan Diego Catholic High School, she served an LDS mission in Riverside, California. She is named after a white sand beach in her parents’ native Tonga. 

Tavake’s mission had a social media focus and she was asked to use her phone as a tool. “I built a good relationship with my phone,” she said. But she recognizes that people need to find a healthy balance with the phones in their lives, resulting in her initiative Hang Up and Hang Out. 

“I’m not anti-social media or anti-phone, but I do recognize that changes need to be made. It’s educating individuals to be masters of their devices rather than slaves to them. Hang Up is about getting off your phone and encouraging people to find meaning in their life, a purpose, and finding connection. Hang Out is doing things that emphasize hanging out with your spouse or your kids, going on a walk, or things like that,” she said.  

Kamryn Stuart is a 2023 graduate of Corner Canyon High School studying Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the University of Utah. She serves as Executive Director of the Women in Business club at the U, and beginning this fall, she’ll be an Eccles Ambassador for the Business Scholars program. In that role, she’ll promote the business school and mentor new students. She’ll also assist in teaching a class for incoming freshman. 

Stuart said she’s friends with the last three Miss Draper queens and that’s what piqued her interest in the program. “They’ve been good mentors and friends. I have loved that it’s not a pageant but rather a service and education program. I appreciate that it offers an education stipend that will help me to do what I love which is marketing,” she said. 

Stuart’s initiative is Waves of Change. It stresses the importance of water safety and drowning prevention using knowledge she’s gained from three years of lifeguarding and working as a swim instructor and coach. “I’ve created and taught my own water safety curriculum, and I’m able to promote my campaign with my title,” she said. 

After five years of volunteering as director of the Miss Draper program, Brady will pass that position to Andrea Page, mother of last year’s queen, Anna. “I will miss seeing the growth in the girls, moments you can’t put down on paper. These girls are exceptional and kind, and seeing them interact with the public…they turn into these beautiful young women inside and out,” Brady said. 

Mayor Troy Walker thanked Brady for her service to the program. “Mandi is the reason Miss Draper is what it is today, she’s been fantastic,” he said. λ