CRAN - ANNE LOOK ALIKE CONTEST 2024 is CANCELLED

Our 2023 Cran-Anne was Anne Otten, a long-time fan of both Anne of Green
Gables and Bala’s Museum. Her parents drove her all the way from Sarnia
on Saturday morning, October 14th to be part of this year’s contest.
Anne immediately turned heads at the Bala Cranberry Festival, wearing a
pale blue floor-length lace gown with a matching blue bow in her hair
and a white lace long-sleeved bolero. She was dressed as Anne Shirley
would have been for a Concert at the White Sands Hotel.

Anne Otten differs from earlier Cran-Anne winners in several ways. At
22, she is the oldest winner since the contest started in 2000. Anne’s
mother Margie Otten, says her daughter was able to relate to abuses in
her own early school years after she watched Anne with an E. Today,
however, Anne relates more to Megan Follows’s role as a mature Anne Shirley.
One thing that Anne Otten shares with author Lucy Maud Montgomery is a
compulsion to write every day. Starting at a young age, LMM hoarded
every scrap of used paper in her grandparents’ post office to write
poetry or short stories. Maud had no idea were her writing would lead her
but she would often continue into the evening.

Anne Otten has a special spot in her home where she sits down immediately after breakfast
to continue her latest short story. She has completed 26 stories with fascinating characters
and unexpected story twists. She likes to say she
has completed 26 stories which likes to call “books”. Young Lucy Maud
Montgomery had no idea where her writing would lead her when she started
writing on scrap paper that her grandparents were about to throw out.
Anne Otten is following the same path at her Sarnia home with no idea of
where writing her “books” will lead her.
Somewhere Lucy Maud Montgomery is applauding her.