Since she was a little girl in Elsah, Kaydi Legate dreamed of one day appearing on the television game show, Wheel of Fortune. That dream will come true for the second-year student in the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine (SDM) during a March 17 episode set to air at 6:30 p.m. on KSDK-TV, the NBC affiliate in St. Louis.
The young woman entered the SDM after earning her bachelor’s in biomedical sciences from SIUE in 2012.
Last summer she heard the “Wheel Mobile” was going to be in St. Louis on her birthday looking for contestants for the show. All she wanted for her birthday was to go to the auditions. So, her friends, obliging her single birthday wish, accompanied her to Lumiere Place Casino and Hotel downtown.
Her entourage arrived for the morning audition session. During the audition, people were called up randomly. Her best friend, Liz Wall, was among one of those selected.
“She really didn’t want to do it,” recalled Kaydi. “She asked if I could go in her place, but they wouldn’t allow that.”
Instead, she and her friend were told their names would be submitted for a “Best Friends Week” segment later in the season, and they would find out by email if they were selected to audition for a show.
“Typically, with the first Wheel Mobile audition, you would have had to have been one of the people chosen on that day, and they would also select a few random people to come back for a second interview,” Kaydi said.
To her surprise, Kaydi received an email a month later saying she had been selected for auditions. “I was surprised,” she remembers. Nearly 45 people turned out for the next audition.
“Once we got there, we had to do some ‘game play,’ naming letters,” she said. “Then there was a written exam to determine puzzle-solving ability. We were given five minutes.
“After that, we were told to take a 30-minute break and they were going to grade the tests, and some of us would be called back.”
Kaydi was among a total of 24 people who made the cut. Those who were called back for the afternoon portion of the audition engaged in more intensive game play and were asked to talk about themselves a bit. She said, “They were checking our stage presence.”
She was not sure what the results would be from that audition. “From there, it was ‘You will either hear from us in two weeks or you won’t.’” She did—and her Los Angeles adventure began.
She shared the good news with her friends and family using Facebook and text.
Legate’s parents, Bob and Jeri, were excited for their daughter. The Legates are both SIUE alumni with undergraduate and graduate degrees. Bob earned his through the School of Business and Jeri achieved hers through the School of Education. Bob learned of his daughter’s good news by receiving “a group text message from our immediate family members who were all sharing the excitement from the notification.”
“I was really happy for her,” said her father, associate director in University Housing at SIUE. “Kaydi has been a Wheel of Fortune fan ever since she was very little. She still enjoys the game show and has had Wheel of Fortune games that she has played over the years, both electronic and board, as a form of entertainment and relaxation—almost to the point of obsession.”
Kaydi flew to Los Angeles on a Thursday night and spent all day Friday taping for the upcoming episode.
“It was just really exciting to go,” she said of the experience. “This is something I have always wanted to do since I was little. It’s just unreal to think that my life’s dream was coming true.”
Following the taping, the Legates stayed in LA for the weekend. Along with her parents, Kaydi was joined by her grandmother, Sandy Legate, and her youngest sister, Kayli, who is attending Jerseyville High School.
“My sister and I had never been to California before,” she said. “Everybody has been able to keep up with me on the journey through Facebook. It was unreal. It was seriously a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.
“I was really lucky it was on a Friday. My teachers were really great about working with me on my schedule so I could go. I think they were just as excited as I was.”
Legate is slated to graduate from the SDM in 2016.
Another sister, Kayci Legate, who is a first-year student in the SIUE School of Pharmacy, was disappointed she was not able to re-arrange her schedule to make the taping.
“After Kaydi had completed the second round selection process, I had been constantly checking the mail at our parents’ house for Kaydi in anticipation of her receiving the Wheel of Fortune invitation,” Kayci said. “I immediately opened the mail and called Kaydi and told her that she had been notified.
“She was really excited, because the day before she was feeling down since the deadline had passed and she had not received her notification. I called her and told her the good news. We both shared a scream together!”
The sisters, who are very close, had hoped it would work out for Kayci to join the family in LA.
“I tried to think of every possible way that I could go with her,” she said. However, I could not find any way to join her given my course work in the pharmacy program—quizzes and exams.
“I sent her off with my positive support. The day of the event, I really didn’t get to talk to her until she was finished with the show.
“Even after the event, I do not have the details given the security and confidentiality requirements.”
Legate has an older sister, Kayri (Legate) Reynolds, who is a graduate from the School of Nursing. Her youngest sister, Kayli, plans to attend the University when she graduates from high school.