BRUSSELS – There will be something new when the 2025 Miss Door County and Miss Door County’s Teen are crowned next February – a new title for young women.
Along with the competition for the existing pageants for Door County women, the Miss Door County Scholarship Organization is holding a pageant for women from other Northeast Wisconsin counties to become the first-ever Miss Cherryland.
The new pageant will take place and new title will be awarded at the Miss Door County event on Feb. 1 at Southern Door Community Auditorium, and applications are open for all three contests. The winners move on to the Miss Wisconsin and Wisconsin Teen pageants June 18 to 21 in New Berlin, with the Miss Wisconsin winner advancing to represent the state in the Miss America pageant.
The Miss Cherryland pageant is open to women who live, work or go to school full-time in Kewaunee, Brown, Outagamie, Waupaca, Shawano, Menominee, Oconto, Marinette, Langlade, Forest or Florence counties (although women in Algoma, Luxemburg or Casco can compete in Miss Door County). They also must be at least 18 but no older than 27 years old at the time of the Miss Wisconsin competition.
Susan Fochs, executive director of the scholarship organization, said the goal of adding a new and different crown along with the Door County ones is simply to provide more opportunities for young women in neighboring areas to take part in a pageant and hopefully reap the benefits, including an expected more than $10,000 in available college scholarships.
Twenty-one other counties, cities or regional locations are scheduled to hold pageants for women to advance to the Miss Wisconsin competition, but Green Bay is the only other one covering Northeast Wisconsin (besides pageants open to women from anywhere in the state) and women in Menominee and the far northern counties aren’t eligible for Miss Green Bay.
“Adding the new Miss Cherryland title was something our committee has been dreaming about for a while. We simply wanted to offer another opportunity to the women of the greater Northeast Wisconsin region,” Fochs said in an email to the Advocate. “The Miss America Organization provides invaluable opportunities to the women who compete, and we wanted to be able to do more.”
Women competing for Miss Door County or Miss Door County’s Teen must live, work or go to school full time in Door County, Algoma, Luxemburg or Casco. Age requirements for Miss contestants are the same as above, 18 to 27 years old at the time of the Miss Wisconsin competition next June, while teen contestants must be at least 14 but no older than 18 for the Miss Wisconsin pageant. Eighteen-year-olds can choose to compete in either the Miss or Teen pageants.
Areas of competition in the pageants are private interview, artistic expression in talent, lifestyle and fitness in sportswear, on-stage interview and evening gown.
Since its first competition in 1997, the Miss Door County organization has awarded more than $275,000 in scholarships, which the organization said in a press release makes it one of the top local pageants for scholarships in the state. It also noted the women taking part have the opportunity to become involved in and represent the Peninsula at various events, network with the community, promote their community service initiatives, grow confidence and build relationships. The program started its Princess Program, now rebranded as the Cherry Blossom Program, for ages 5 to 12 in 2010 and the teen program in 2011.
To sign up for the pageants or for more information, visit missdoorcounty.org and click the “Sign Up Today” tab.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Miss Door County adds pageant for women in other NE Wisconsin counties
