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Monday, July 21, 2003

By Bill Heltzel, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Candace Otto helped a homeless man get a job a year ago, and with a little singing, strutting, posing and declaiming she may be able to help more people.

Otto was crowned Miss Pennsylvania nine days ago, and with the title she gained a pulpit for advocating for her favorite cause, fighting poverty.

	Candace Mari Otto Date of birth: April 8, 1980 Place of birth: Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh In the news: Crowned Miss Pennsylvania on July 12, and will compete in the Miss America pageant in September in Atlantic City, N.J. Quote: "Young people have the energy and optimism to want change in the world." Education: Shady Side Academy, Fox Chapel, 1998; Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., 2002. Family: Parents, Audia and William Otto, of Murrysville.

"I feel that poverty is a denial of the dream of living in America, in a land of so many resources," she said. "Thirty-two million Americans, including 12 million children, live in poverty.

"I didn't realize it until after I won. The crown is a megaphone. I've only been Miss Pennsylvania for a week, but already people are hearing about the things I'm passionate about."

She will attain a more prominent stage from which to broadcast her message if she wins the Miss America contest Sept. 16-20 in Atlantic City, N.J.

She has been preparing for the role since age 6, when her mother, Audia, enrolled her in acting lessons at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

"She thought I was too shy," Otto said. "She thought it would help me with public speaking."

Otto was drawn to the fun and hard work of acting, and she certainly overcame her shyness.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took note in 1992, when Otto, at age 11, portrayed Curly Pig vs. the Big Bad Wolf in a mock trial videotaped for an Allegheny County Bar Association educational program, and at age 14, when she played Hansel in "Hansel and Gretel" at Sherwood Forest Theater and danced as the ballerina in the "Nutcracker" at Apple Hill Playhouse.

Singing in church led to voice lessons and to a position in the Civic Light Opera chorus. She competed in the Miss Pennsylvania Teen USA Pageant as a 16-year-old.

By the time she enrolled at Northwestern University to study theater, pageants no longer appealed to her, she said. But the prospect of winning scholarship money before her senior year persuaded her to compete in the Miss Illinois contest.

Then she discovered that pageants had more to offer.

She had become sensitized to poverty when she tutored children in East Liberty while attending Shady Side Academy in Fox Chapel. At Northwestern, she and three other students opened an office for the National Student Partnership, a volunteer group that connects poor people to organizations that provide child care, housing and jobs. She served as co-director in 2001. She wrote an operations manual for the national office, and now she advises the Pittsburgh office.

"I like the fact that NSP uses resources already available," she said, "and with volunteers, it's cost-effective."

One of her proudest accomplishments was helping a homeless Chicago man write a resume and letting him use the partnership's address and phone number for contacts.

The man eventually got discouraged and quit showing up, so when a grocer responded to the resume Otto tracked him down at a soup kitchen. He got the job.

Now Otto sees pageants as a good fit.

"They're a natural for me," Otto said.

"They combine my love of performing, my love of music and my love of community service."

Miss America contestants are judged in five categories in the preliminary round, including an interview that accounts for 40 percent of the score; talent, 30 percent; evening wear, 10 percent; on-stage question, 10 percent; and swimsuit, 10 percent.

Otto is practicing the classical Italian song "Non ti scordardi me (Don't Forget Me)."

"I love the talent competition," she said. "I'm a performer at heart. Anytime anyone will listen to me sing is a privilege to me."

Her overall strategy is to prepare herself as an effective spokesperson for fighting poverty. If she doesn't win, she said, she will put her skills to use in a smaller arena, as Miss Pennsylvania.

At age 23, her days on the pageant circuit are numbered. Last year she went to work for Coldwell Banker Real Estate, at the Murrysville office managed by her mother.

But her ambition is greater. For much of her life she has dreamed of a career in musical theater in New York City, and she moved back to Pittsburgh after college graduation to study with opera instructor Claudia Pinza at Duquesne University.

She fell in love with opera and now wants to sing opera professionally. Opera, she said, combines the highest form of drama with the most beautiful music.

"Singing opera would be the most wonderful kind of performer to be."