3 From County Vie for Miss Wisconsin Title

Twenty-two young women are in Oshkosh this week, competing for the title of Miss Wisconsin. Three of them are Door County natives. Shirley Ehlers, executive director of the Miss Door County Pageant since it began 14 years ago, says she thinks it is the first time there have been three contestants from the same area.

And that’s not the only remarkable thing about this trio. Two of them are sisters – just the second time this has occurred in state pageant history, Ehlers believes – and the third contestant has dated the sisters’ brother throughout high school.

Kim and Katie Sawyer, the daughters of Jackie and John Sawyer, grew up in Egg Harbor and graduated from Gibraltar. Kim first competed in the Miss Door County Pageant in 2005.

“I was always on stage with theater and choir, and the pageant was another opportunity to do what I loved,” she says. “I didn’t win that year, but it was great fun. I earned scholarship money and learned a lot about myself – confidence, poise and interview skills that will help me the rest of my life. It was a wonderful experience.”

Kim won Miss Door County on her second attempt in 2008, while a junior at St. Norbert College. She has fond memories of that state pageant and the friends she made there. She graduated last year and is now a business analyst for a fuel consulting company in De Pere. She’s representing the Green Bay area in this year’s state pageant. As her talent, she’ll sing “Vissi d’arte” by Puccini. Her platform is Service for the Soul, which encourages volunteerism.

Katie competed in the local pageant in 2007 and won in 2009. She was crowned by Kim, who says, “I think I was more nervous than she was.” Like her sister, Katie is involved in theater and music. Now a senior at UW-Green Bay, where she’s majoring in communications with a minor in theater, she hopes for a career as an actor or in radio or TV broadcasting. Competing this year as Miss South Central, her platform is Get Caught Reading: Join the Challenge, and she’ll sing “Natural Woman.” Like Kim, Katie had a great time at the state pageant, with no tense moments like the one at the Miss Door County Pageant, when she discovered that the zipper in her evening gown was broken. Ehlers sewed her into the dress and saved the day.

Katie expresses how supportive their parents have been throughout the pageants.

“Mom is wonderful, taking us to fittings and helping us choose songs and pick out outfits,” Katie says. “Dad [Gibraltar football coach John Sawyer] coached us in so many sports when we were growing up that it’s nice for him to just sit and watch.”

Their brother Tom, a 2010 Gibraltar graduate, has been good, she says, “about all the girly stuff” and cheers for them at all the competitions.

Tom will have a third reason to cheer this year. The current Miss Door County, crowned by Katie Feb. 6, is Crystal Burke, a 2010 Sevastapol graduate and Tom’s girlfriend. An outstanding basketball and softball player who had never performed on stage, Crystal says she had no interest in pageants until she saw Kim and Katie win the Miss Door County title.

“Katie’s pageant was the turning point,” she says. “When she told me what fun she was having and how much she was learning from the experience, I decided to enter this year.”

Her favorite part of the pageant was the interview – plus, of course, winning the crown and a $5,000 scholarship.

“I’m nervous about the state competition,” Crystal says, “but Kim and Katie have been so confident and supportive. It will be great to see familiar faces in the audience.”

Crystal will dance to “Conga” by Gloria Estefan. Her platform is Healthy Habits: Raising a Healthier Generation. The daughter of Connie and Dave Burke, Crystal will attend Ripon College on an academic scholarship, playing softball and majoring in education.

Ehlers has high praise for the Miss Door County pageant committee.

“Without them we wouldn’t have such a great program,” she says. She also stresses the “incredible generosity” of Door Countians. “We’re the smallest geographic area that sponsors a contestant, but for six consecutive years, we raised more money for scholarships than anywhere else in the state.”