West Salem’s Miss Onalaska ready for next challenge

By RANDY ERICKSON Editor

Katie Ekern will pass the Miss Onalaska title she won last spring to another young woman in a couple weeks, who will be the 30th to win the honor. But she can’t quite pack away her tiara as there’s just one more little thing she needs to attend to as Miss Onalaska: the Miss Wisconsin Pageant. The Miss Onalaska title holder is one of a handful in the state who crown a successor before competing in the state pageant, the winner of which goes on to compete for the title of Miss America. The extra month and a half between the Onalaska pageant and the state competition is time that can be used to Ekern’s advantage. While other local pageant winners might have a lot of duties to attend to with the spring/summer festival season starting up, Ekern can concentrate on preparing for Miss Wisconsin.

Also, she said, unlike title holders crowned since last June, she got to go to last year’s Miss Wisconsin Pageant, which gave her a better idea of what to expect.

“I feel lucky that I’ve had that opportunity,” Ekern said.

Of course, some of the young women Ekern will be competing against at Miss Wisconsin have an even better idea of what to expect, having competed there multiple times. But even though this is Ekern’s first trip to the main event in Oshkosh, she is a seasoned pageant performer.

A 2003 West Salem High School graduate, Ekern competed in two Miss Onalaska contests before winning last spring. Her first two outings weren’t all that encouraging n she didn’t even place n but she enjoyed the whole experience so much that she came back for the third time. “It’s very beneficial,” Ekern said of the pageant program. “It’ll help you grow in many aspects of your life.”

And the scholarship money she earned just by competing didn’t hurt, either.

Ekern has completed her dental assistant training at Western Technical College in La Crosse and will get to the top of the waiting list to get in the dental hygienist program by fall 2007. She said she had always wanted to do something in the health field and one day while getting her teeth cleaned, she suddenly knew what she wanted to do.

Katie Ekern

Her career ambition is reflected in her platform as Miss Onalaska — “Give a Kid a Smile” — which aims to teach young children the importance of oral and dental health. During her reign as Miss Onalaska, Ekern has made presentations before more than 1,000 Onalaska and West Salem children, mostly in kindergarten and first grade, about dental hygiene.

One thing Ekern had going for her in the Miss Onalaska Pageant was a sizeable cheering section. In addition to her parents, David and Mary Ann Ekern, her family also includes six brothers and a sister ranging in age from 7 to 32, with the youngest two being adopted foster children.

For her talent at Miss Wisconsin, Ekern will sing “I Can’t Do It Alone,” from the musical, “Chicago.” She’ll sing it for the first time in public April 29 at the Miss Onalaska Pageant.

She has also been working on her interviewing for the Miss Wisconsin competition, an aspect of the pageant that is weighed heavily and is a bit intimidating to Ekern.

Becoming Miss Wisconsin and getting the chance to compete at Miss America would be a thrill for Ekern, but she said that’s not her main goal. “I think everyone goes in there fantasizing about what it would be like, but truly I just want to go there and do the best I can do.”

Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net or 786-6812.

Source: http://www.couleenews.com/articles/2006/04/13/features/01ekern.txt

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