“My platform is very dear to my heart. It’s a very emotional routine,” says Miss Michigan Katie LaRoche. (The Daily News/John Eby)

By JOHN EBY

Dowagiac Daily News

It’s not unusual to see a beauty queen dance for her talent, but Miss Michigan Katie Lynn LaRoche moves her feet in a flurry to raise awareness about human trafficking, as she did in Dowagiac Sept. 11.

LaRoche, 23, of Bay City, founded the non-profit organization One World. One Future. and worked for the Michigan House of Representatives before taking on the job of Miss Michigan.

Her travels, specifically throughout Nepal, led her to her platform, Raising Awareness of Human Trafficking.

This form of modern-day slavery is a very serious global issue of human rights taking place within U.S. borders.

Human trafficking is the second-largest criminal industry in the world, trailed only by the global drug trade.

It is estimated there are 27 million people living in slavery — a figure two times the amount of individuals trafficked throughout the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade.

This global issue is also a U.S issue with 14,500 to 17,000 individuals smuggled into the United States annually, with an estimated 200,000 U.S. children at risk.

“The reality is that this horrendous crime will continue to grow unless it is recognized by police officers, government officials and everyday good Samaritans,” she says.

Katie, who competed for Miss Michigan as Miss Capital City, graduated from Michigan State University and is an Alpha Chi Omega alumna.

She won $10,000 with the state title and was also crowned Miss Congeniality.

On Wednesday night in June in Muskegon she captured the talent award for her contemporary dance.

On Thursday night, she added awards for swimsuit and evening wear.

It was her experience in the MSU Kenya study abroad program that instilled her interest in human rights.

Katie says she has been lucky to study and research in Africa for five weeks, to volunteer in an orphanage in Belize in Central America for 28 days, to teach courses for MSU in New Zealand and to work with an agency fighting child trafficking and with the sisters of Mother Theresa in Nepal.

Her non-profit, One World. One Future., works to address human rights issues around the world.

This year they will be working with Maiti Nepal to raise funds to establish at least one $25,000  Nepal-India border transit shelter and potentially a solar energy system that will provide girls with a much-needed power source for their rehabilitation center.

The shelter is projected to save 225 girls annually from being trafficked.

For more information, log on to www.oneworldonefuture.org.

LaRoche aspires to speak in all 83 counties on her issue by December.

She will host a human trafficking awareness gala Oct. 24 in Lansing to help raise the $25,000.

Michigan’s Miss America 2008 Kirsten Haglund will be there as a performer.

Katie practices yoga daily, is an avid runner and has been dancing and performing since age 2.

She has had the opportunity to have such interesting experiences as hiking to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, to the base camp of Mount Everest and she enjoys skydiving, bungee jumping and scuba diving.

Following her work with the Miss America organization, Katie will be embarking on a six-month journey throughout Central and South America.

The organization Partners of the Americans will be giving her this opportunity to share her dancing and speaking talents.

LaRoche, who competes for Miss America in January in Las Vegas, came to the Miss Michigan organization with the “straightforward mission of spreading compassion.”

“I simply desire to best utilize the gifts and opportunities which I have been presented in this moment, in this year, in this life,” she says. “There is a strange connection that I have come to feel in my heart and in my gut to the girls in our world, my sisters in a sense, who are facing a life so different from the life of abundance that I have come to receive for a reason I refrain from even trying to understand.”

“I am thankful every morning when I wake up for this organization and the voice it has given me and the way it allows me to affect a great many lives,” she said to applause at the middle school Performing Arts Center, adding, “I may or not be performing the dance routine I will be doing at Miss America.”