Hazel Homer-Wambeam is from a small Jewish community in Laramie, Wyoming. With only 1,150 Jews in the whole state and no synagogue in sight, the Jews of Laramie gather in a local Masonic Temple for services and meet for potluck dinners. But Hazel Homer-Wambeam took her love for singing and dancing to the Miss Wyoming competition and was named the first Jewish crown holder.

In December, she will head to the national competition and vie to be only the second Jewish Miss America in the program’s history. The first, Bess Myerson, competed as Miss New York in 1945.