 The Minnesota United States pageant is back and brainered for the second straight year. Our A.J. Feldman has more as the state costume runway show kicked off the weekend's schedule. Many Minnesota-themed costumes were on display, honoring some famous icons and the state's natural beauty. It was both a chance to meet the contestants and the beginning of the end for last year's winners, who have had a busy 12 months volunteering and promoting their platforms. You don't think about it when you're competing, but after you get crowned it's like a job pretty much. It's like you do volunteer activities and throughout the summer it's like almost one every day and a lot of people don't realize that. It's really representing a platform and being an ambassador and doing volunteer work throughout our entire state. So I'm a cancer survivor and this year I've put my whole heart into volunteering more than I ever have before whether it was TV, radio, the Hope Lodge hospitals and schools. After moving the pageant from St. Paul it found a home in Brainerd and is being embraced by the public and local businesses. There is a really big pageant following here in Brainerd and not a lot of people know about that. So when we brought in the state pageant it was a big deal for our community and they welcomed us with open arms. So it's been amazing the support that we've seen from local business owners and just families in the community has been great. It's really cool and when they're holding the bouquets at the end of the night up on the stage that just makes us feel wonderful to be able to have a beautiful bouquet in their hands. We heard so many great things from sponsors. So many great things from our community. Thank you for bringing it to Brainerd. Thank you for this and thank you for that. Reporting in Brainerd, A.J. Feldman, Lakeland News. Six crowns will be handed out tomorrow night with two more on Sunday. You can find the full schedule on our website lptv.org. The winners will be heading to Orlando in June for the national competition. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.