Kellogg-born reigning Miss Alaska vies for Miss Volunteer America

It’s been years in the making, but after her pageant debut in a beauty pageant as a child in Coeur d’Alene, the reigning Miss Alaska, Holly Helena Huber is going on to compete in the national Miss Volunteer America Pageant in two weeks in Tennessee.

Huber also has connections to the Silver Valley before her family made the move to Juneau, Alaska, 12 years ago.

“I was born in Kellogg and grew up in Pinehurst, so deep roots there,” Huber said.

As a financial analyst for Wells Fargo Bank, she’s involved in stock trading and is currently working toward completing a Yale University certificate of finance.

Huber credits her mother, Tami Roberts, for getting her into the arena to compete and keep trying for the Miss Alaska title as Huber added professional skills to her resume.

“I’ve been doing pageants my whole life and my mom got me started like straight out of the womb. I had given up on being Miss Alaska and she really encouraged me to get back into it this year after the education I’ve done the last few years,” Huber said. 

Huber’s mother, Tami Roberts, had just finished a rescue of a bald eagle to nurse it back to health when she discussed Huber’s pageant achievements over the phone. Huber heads into the national competition June 19 in Jackson, Tenn. 

“I’m a nervous wreck. When she was a kid, we were just doing it for fun so I never thought we’d make it this far,” Roberts said.

This past October was Huber’s third time competing before winning the title of Miss Alaska.  

There’s a good deal of volunteering responsibilities accompanying the title in addition to training for the national arena with her coach, Troy Michael Smith.

Fundraising for charities like St. Jude, which the pageant sponsors, also takes up a lot of time and effort. 

As part of her Miss Alaska title, she has been offered a seat on the board of directors for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and works with organizations like the National Alliance for Mental Illness.

Huber said pageants require more than the featured outfits that were a major part of other pageants but rather the mental and physical regimens involved in the process take a lot of time to prepare for.

“I don't think people realize there is so much community involvement in pageantry. It’s taken about eight months, but we’ve finally gotten everything ready and I’m so excited to see how it goes,” Huber said.

Huber will be posting links to the Miss Volunteer America Pageant livestream on her Instagram @MissAKVol during the preliminary competition June 19-21. There is also a people’s choice vote, so she may be automatically pushed into the top 16 of the 50 women competing for the national title.