Lane selected as Miss Loveland Valentine 2024
Thompson Valley Rotary Club and the Loveland Chamber of Commerce have chosen the Sweetheart City’s next Miss Loveland Valentine: Loveland High School senior Mckayley Lane.
Lane will be tasked with a variety of responsibilities during the season of Loveland’s favorite holiday, including stamping the valentines sent to Loveland for remailing, playing a role in events like the Corn Roast and Sweetheart festivals, and meeting with Colorado’s governor.
Each of the eight candidates for the honor, which dates back to 1962, was interviewed by a panel of judges, asked to write an essay and to present a short speech about Loveland at a luncheon Thursday in front of the judges, Rotary Club members, other candidates and their families, and community members.
“This is the highlight of our year,” Chamber President and CEO Mindy McCloughan said at Thursday’s luncheon.
Ellie Heiser, who served over the last year as Miss Loveland Valentine 2023, handed over her sash and a necklace that is passed down by each Miss Loveland Valentine after Lane’s selection.
Lane’s speech touched on a number of local traditions in town, ranging from the annual Valentine Hearts program, which hangs wooden hearts bearing messages of love from street poles across the city; the fireworks show at Lake Loveland, which she described as “the best fireworks in the state;” and drinking hot chocolate with friends in Centerra under the Winter Wonderlights around Christmas time.
“Then we’d go ice skating, and I’d always have to push around those little walkers that look like trash bins that help beginners stay up, because I still, to this day, cannot learn how to ice skate,” she joked.
The top two candidates were announced following their speeches, and Lane and the runner-up, Marin Napolitano, shared a fist bump before Lane’s name was called.
“It’s so exciting, and such an honor,” Lane’s mother, Stephanie Lane, said. “She’s the most kind-hearted person you’ll ever meet.”
She shared a story of Lane as a young girl on Halloween, asking for extra candy for her young sister, who was in a stroller at the time. On the occasion that a house wouldn’t oblige, she would drop her own candy in her sister’s bucket.
“It feels amazing,” Lane said. “Such an honor. I’m really excited. I’m looking forward to it a lot. It’s going to be a really cool opportunity and experience for me.”