Mrs. Colfax for America 2021 crowned

EPHRATA — Lorien Smith is one of those sorts of people that has so much going on that it makes you wonder when she has time to sleep.

As a homeschooling mom, wife, volunteer emergency medical technician and active member of her community, it's a true accomplishment for Smith to have recently added the title of Mrs. Colfax for America 2021 to her already long list of responsibilities and passions.

Smith was born and raised in Ephrata and graduated from Ephrata High School.

Even though she doesn't live in the area anymore she still has deep ties to the community.

"My parents are still in the Ephrata area. They are still in the house that I grew up in. And I still have a lot of friends there," she said.

After graduation she attended Washington State University, where she obtained degrees in sociology and women's studies, along with a minor in environmental science.

"I actually intended to go to WSU for a degree in communications to work in journalism. I took my first sociology class very early on and fell in love with it," she said. "I just always wanted to help people and so it took off from there."

She met her husband while they were at WSU and after graduation he was able to snag a job at the university.

Smith on the other hand got a job at a large medical clinic after graduation.

She later got a job at a Head Start and Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program in Pullman.

Smith and her husband had their first child in 2009 and second in 2012. When her children were born Smith's job title changed to being a stay-at-home mom from May 2009 until just recently.

As a stay-at-home mom, Smith home schooled her children, which was going just fine up until COVID-19 hit last year.

Smith and her children already had the stability of the homeschool system, but when stay-at-home orders were issued and parks, restaurants and libraries closed she missed out on being able to regularly be around her friends.

Smith knew of another Columbia Basin native - Natalie Luttmer - who was named Mrs. America 2017 and she started to ponder attempting something similar.

"I always thought she was younger than me, because her husband was. And I just recently saw that she is a little bit older than I am and then I was like 'I can still do this,'" she said. "It's something I had known about and then the opportunity came up to make some new friends and to get more involved in my community. It just seemed like a win all around."

Smith, who now lives in Colfax, filled out an application and was ultimately awarded the title of Mrs. Colfax by the director of the Mrs. Washington America Pageant.

The next step in the process in the Mrs. Washington America Pageant is Aug. 14.

The winner of the pageant will go on to compete in the Mrs. America Pageant.

The winner of Mrs. America will then compete in the Mrs. World Pageant.

"It is a lot of work, but you can tie it into whatever you are passionate about doing and just make it even more fulfilling. So we each have a platform that we select – Kind of an area of focus that we are interested in."

With Smith doing volunteer work as an Emergency Medical Technician her platform is called "Hope and Heartbeat," which teaches the public - the younger generation in particular - that EMT and volunteer firefighter work are viable ways to be involved in their community.

"You can essentially be the person who is there on a person's worst day and help them get to the hospital so it isn't their worst day," she said.