Keeping tradition alive for the past 61 years, Miss Norway 2016 went off without a hitch. This year’s winners: Lene Samuelsen, Miss Norway of Greater New York and Susannah O’Shea, Miss Heritage of Greater New York.
“We had a wonderful contest,” said Lars Nilsen, co-chair of the Norwegian Immigration Association (NIA). “We were very happy and it went very well.”
Nilsen said that this year, as with many previous years, judging the pageant was very difficult given each contestant’s “excellence.
“All of the contestants should be very proud,” Nilsen noted. “The families of all of the contestants should be very proud [of them] and what they are aspiring to do. They’re all very accomplished and that was nice to see.”
Nilsen also said that through this pageant, and through the NIA’s website (niahistory.org), the organization’s aim is to keep Norwegian history alive for future generations.
“We like to advocate that this is more than a beauty contest,” he said. “We try to emphasize that and why the NIA is interested in sponsoring this, because it fits into what we’re trying to accomplish – [which is] a basic interest [in the culture] and our mission to record the history of the Norwegians.”