Walker found a tailor in New Haven. Go straight to Lucy, Greg Karachristos of Greg’s Tailor Shop tells her, referring to Lucy Camarda, owner of Lucy Tailor.

“He said she would take care of me,” recalls the soft-spoken little Walker.

It was then that Camarda learned that Walker, a recent Penn State graduate in business and economics, would be entering the Miss Connecticut pageant in June.

“At that point, it all came together,” Camarda’s daughter Michelle Maturo said. “Of course. She’s absolutely gorgeous.

Walker, 23, said she had been competing since she was 8 years old.

“I remember how beautiful I felt when I took the stage in my first competition in my green dress with my dad as an escort and I knew that was what I loved to do”, a- she declared.

For Walker, who was a member of the math and science clubs at the Magnet School at New Haven University of Engineering and Science, the pageantry is more than just a beauty pageant.

“It’s a platform to express who you are and what you stand for,” she said.

That’s what prompted her to use part of her income as a claims adjuster to start her own business, Keke Mary’s Styles, an online store with “a bit of everything,” she says. The beauty, health and wellness products, handpicked fashion items and personalized clothing she has designed, she said, exemplify her “passion for style and creativity.”

The store offers luxury hair extensions from a company started by her mother, Jennifer Walker, and passed on to her daughter. Jennifer Walker also runs her own tax business and sits on the New Haven Finance Review and Audit Commission. His father Fitz Walker founded Bartron Medical Imaging, a manufacturer of biotechnology medical devices in New Haven.

Walker credits his parents, who Walker called “my greatest role models and my greatest supporters,” for honing his business skills and energizing his entrepreneurial spirit. Her focus and sense of purpose, she said, started in the previous generation, with the arrival of her maternal grandparents from Guyana and her father’s parents from Jamaica.

“They came with work visas, and it really instilled this work ethic and this hard work mentality into my parents and it passed on to me,” Walker said.

Over the past year, she’s channeled that motivation into her # I’mAGirlBoss hashtag movement and t-shirt line.

“It’s a hashtag to inspire and encourage young girls and women to take charge and become the bosses of their own lives and become their most empowered person, and a big part of that is community service,” he said. said Walker, who created Valentine’s Day cards for families at CCA’s Hillside Family Shelter and recently organized a collection of basic kit supplies for Columbus House residents.

When asked how she is preparing for the competition, which takes place in Windsor from June 4-6 and includes three areas of competition – swimsuit, evening dress and interview – Walker said she is working with a personal trainer on fitness and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

The rest, it seems, comes as naturally to her as negotiating the locker room in Lucy’s boutique in her 6 and 1/2-inch heels.

“That’s what I believe,” she said of her # I’mAGirlBoss campaign. “This is what I am going through.”

The bright yellow of the dress, which she will make her competition debut, seems to accentuate this passion. Camarda used the additional material to make a shawl.

“Gorgeous,” said Jocelyn Smestad, who had her dress fitted for the Branford High School prom.

“I think she’s going to be Miss Universe,” Lucy’s granddaughter Michelle Lugo, 14, said of Walker with some admiration.

“I’m so excited,” Walker said, with a dramatic sweep of the shawl, as the bell above the door rang again. “Lucy literally brought it to life.”

Miss Connecticut USA will be held June 4-6 at the Marriott Hartford / Windsor Airport. For more information, visit https://www.missconnecticutusa.com/competition.

Lisa Reisman can be contacted at [email protected]