Page M4 March 28, 1990. This Week

PROFILE

Miss Victoria: Class, good looks, talent and dreams

iss Victoria of 1990
describes herself
as a young-looking
23 years old.

Tall, with long blonde hair,
talented and intelligent, Kar-
yn Kahle, a classic beauty, is
Victoria’s ambassador at many
local functions. It makes for a
busy schedule.

Much of her work includes
singing, a passion she hopes to
turn into a career.

Recently she performed at
the Variety Club Telethon, the
Vanier Awards and Timmy’s
Telethon, the latter last week-
end in Victoria.

And coming up this weekend
she will host a fashion show
assignment at Harbour Square
Mall.

It’s a bit like going back
home, at the mall, because
merchants there sponsored her
for last year’s Miss Victoria
pageant, she said.

She gets most of her musical
inspiration from songs sung by
such recording artists as Lin-
da Ronstadt, Bette Midler
and Barbara Streisand. ,

So how do people react
when they see her perform?

“People are very posi-
tive,” she said — although
some see a pretty face up
there and think that’s all
there is.

But Karyn is more than a
pretty face and a lovely
voice.

“Tm a fourth-year biology
student at UVic and I plan
on becoming an environ-
mental adviser,” in addition
to continuing with singing,

she said.

Her concern for the envi-
ronment led her to go to
work for the provincial
governments Environment
Youth Corps last summer.

As a member of a team of
young people, she helped
clear prickly blackberry
bushes out of sections of
Craigflower and Colquitz
waterways, allowing the
salmon to return safely to
spawn.

“I wore a pair of hip wad-
ers. It was cold work,” she
said.

Born in Vancouver and
Taised in various communi-
ties, including Victoria,
Karyn first got into the
modeling business in Van-
couver in 1984 and 1985.

She left the industry five
years ago, doubting she
would ever return, she said.

“But last June I was ap-
proached on a street in Vic-
toria by the daughter of a
modeling/ talent agency
owner,” she said.

“I told her I used to be a
model but that I felt I was
now too old.”

However, when she found
out she would have the op-
portunity to sing on some of
the assignments, she re-
turned to the trade.

“Curiosity killed the cat,”
she quipped.

Today, as Miss Victoria
and as a contestant last
year at the Miss Canada pag-
eant, where she won a sing-
ing award, she is taking

-another look at the interna-

This Week

An Island Publishers Newsmagazine

V8W 1M9

#30-727 Johnson Street,
Victoria, British Columbia

Jim Cunningham, Publisher
Tony Kant, Editor
Koglen Moodley, Production Manager

381-3484

VICTORIA BEAUTY Karyn
Kahle strikes a pose, below,
and speaks on the phone at
Laurin’ D’Rappard Interna-
tional Models. :

Story by JOHN STANTON

Photos by Robert Laing (be-
low)
and George Lee

tional big-time in modeling.

Her 23 years certainly
don’t qualify her for the
over-the-hill-gang, but Kar-
yn knows there is intense
international competition
among the much younger,
teenaged superstar models.
Some of them get into the
business at the tender age
of 13.

On the chance that good
luck might come her way
there, she will travel to
New York to attend the
World Modeling Association
convention next July.

“One hundred agents from
all over the world will be there
to assess North American ta-
lent,” she said.

In addition to looking for new
models, these talent hunters,
some of them representing mov-
ie studios, will also look for
prospective actors, singers and
people in other areas of the
performing arts, she said.

Karyn’s wish is to spend a
few months on the internation-

al modeling circuit, just for the
experience, then return to Vic-
toria to resume her other work. |

Even if that overseas prospect :
does not work out, she can still |
be proud of her accomplish-
ments to date here at home,
which include working with up
and coming models in Victoria.
Karyn is employed part-time by
the agency which rediscovered
her, Laurin D’Rappard In-
ternational Models.

Given her experience at two
pageants, her advice for pro-
spective contestants is to keep a

- positive attitude, and realize

the event is designed to find the
most appropriate person do the
job of representing either her
community or country.

Next September, when she
hands over the crown to her
successor at the 1991 Miss Vic-

toria Pageant, she plans to re-
turn to UVic for another year to
earn her biology degree.
Between that and her sing-
ing, Karyn Kahle, Miss Victoria
1990, has a varied and exciting
life already.

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