Miss Florida Int’l to grace parade
Nineteen-year-old Alexi Gropper has been into performance arts since age 2, when she started dancing on stage as a toddler. It comes as no surprise that she was born to excel in pageantry.
The 5’7″ Wellington, Florida resident and Russian native is Miss Florida U.S. International, She will lead several other youthful pageantry winners at the Town of Fort Myers Beach Fourth of July Parade this Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. She will be joined by Miss Fort Myers, Miss Cape Coral, Miss Naples, Miss Teen Earth Florida, Miss Earth Florida, Miss Teen Fort Myers, Mrs. Florida American Beauty, Miss Pre-Teen Florida American Beauty and Little Miss Florida American Beauty.
Gropper, age 19, captured her coveted title at the Florida State International Pageant last November. She won the title as the youngest contestant at the event.
“It was actually my first ‘Miss’ pageant, and I was competing against girls that were 26 years old,” she said. “I had confidence and ended up winning.”
Last week, Gropper competed for the national pageant at the Miss U.S. International at the International Palms Resort in Orlando. She placed in the top 15 and enjoyed the experience.
“I made a lot of friends with the girls, and we did a lot of events and photo shoots throughout the week,” she said. Minnesota’s Lindsay Becker won the pageant and competes for the Miss International title in Japan in November.
Gropper is a model and actress (she is an ‘extra’ in the USA Network original television show “Graceland”), but aspires to be a plastic surgeon. She is majoring in Biology as a full-time student at Palm Beach Dade College and will enter her sophomore year this fall.
Gropper has lived with her adopted parents in Wellington for 10 years and previously lived in New York for seven years after being adopted with her twin brother at age 1. As Miss Florida International, she works with the Children’s Home Society -an organization involved in fostering, adoption (imagine that!) and helping children in general- as well as achieving a lot of charity work and making fashion show appearances.
While she has travelled to Fort Myers to visit Miss Florida U.S. International Pageant Executive Director Suzi Hosfeld at her office, the current Miss Florida International will make her first appearance on Fort Myers Beach for the Fourth of July activities.
“(Suzi) has been a great director and has gotten me a lot of appearances in fashion shows. She supported me at the Miss U.S. International championships,” she said.
Hosfeld believes Gropper will go far in life.
“She’s an amazing young lady who looks fabulous and is trained and prepared,” she said. “She has done everything she needed to do to get ready. She is also in great shape. This girl has a knockout body.”
Gropper did not hesitate when asked who she would consider her hero.
“It’s definitely my parents because they adopted me. They gave me a chance and an education to have a good job,” she said.
It was her mother that got her involved in pageantry at the age of 13. She said it helped her stay out of trouble, taught her how to carry herself around boys and inspired her to work on hairstyles and makeup.
“My mom signed me up for a pageant. I joined and fell in love,” Alexi said. “It helped me learn how to interview well. It really prepared me outside of high school and college.”
Other sports fueled her passion.
“I did synchronized swimming for the past 12 years,” she said. “I competed in the Junior Olympics and the U.S. Open. I still dance and love all sports.”
Acting came naturally as well.
“My first year in high school, I joined an acting school called Sea Star, where I learned how to do monologues and work both behind the camera and in front of it. I fell in love with acting also,” she said.
An extreme animal lover, Gropper has six dogs (three chihuahuas, a poodle, a beagle and a pomeranian) and two cats. And, they all deal with her accessorizing.
“They love to dress up,” she said. “My poodle does pageants.”