By Kim McDarison

Each year, for the past 11 years, approximately one month before the Whitewater Fourth of July Festival, a group of girls and young women gather for a cause.

They practice for a pageant which will be performed on the Frawley Stage in Cravath Lakefront Park, the proceeds from which will be used to help a group in need, and each year, following the performance, Whitewater will have four new queens and several new princesses, with each bearing a title based on poise and age: Miss Whitewater, Miss Teen Whitewater, Miss Junior Whitewater, Little Miss Whitewater, and princesses who carry the title Mini Miss Whitewater.

Crowned as royalty this year are: Miss Whitewater Emily Eisner; Miss Teen Whitewater Halee Peters; Junior Miss Whitewater Zoe Zei; Little Miss Whitewater, and a cousin of Miss Whitewater, Lily Eisner, and two Mini Miss Whitewaters: Ruby June Bols and Lainey Franks.

How they spend their royal year is completely up to them, pageant director and Whitewater resident Elizabeth Bols said, but, she added, learning about social responsibility is among values the pageant is meant to teach, and of the queens and princesses crowned annually, she said, “they like to help.” 

Bols has served as the pageant’s director since its inception in 2012. That year, her 9-year-old daughter participated, and, Bols said, from her vantage point as director, she grew fond of watching a group of girls and young women form bonds and find between them a kind of camaraderie and acceptance.

Bols said her daughter has since participated in the pageant several times and continues to nurture friendships with the girls and young women she has met through the program.

Since 2012, Bols said, the pageant has attracted participants and produced a choreographed show for inclusion in Whitewater’s Fourth of July festivities annually, with a pause in 2020 as a COVID-19 precaution.

The goals of the program are two-fold, she said: “it’s primarily a fundraiser for different causes and it’s an opportunity for the girls and young women to do something for the community, and have fun.”

Each year, girls and young women, who have been recruited by other girls and young women who have participated in the program, assemble in June to begin practicing for the July show. 

“We continue to practice for the four or five weeks, depending on how the calendar and festival fall, each year,” Bols said, noting that the girls and young women are responsible for producing any social media invites or other releases of information associated with the program.

Also in June, the girls sell ads for placement in their Fourth of July Festival pageant program and raffle tickets for themed gift baskets, with a winner announced during the Fourth of July festivities. 

This year, those activities netted the queens and princesses $15,869, which was donated to the Racine-based Veteran’s Outreach of Wisconsin program, with those monies specified for use at Veteran’s Village. Bols said the village is a community of tiny houses constructed for homeless veterans.

A link to the program’s website is here: https://vowvillages.com.

“It costs $5,000 to build each tiny home, and we raised enough money to build three tiny homes,” Bols said.

While proceeds developed during this year’s Fourth of July event were used exclusively to support the veterans outreach project, in past years, the girls and young women have used their money to support myriad initiatives.

In 2022, as earlier reported by WhitewaterWise’s sister publication, Fort Atkinson Online, the pageant raised money to support the Highground Camp Victory, which seeks to provide a safe environment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their families.

An earlier story, appearing in FortAtkinsonOnline.com, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/miss-whitewater-pageant-registration-open-through-june-8/. 

In 2021, Bols said, the girls and young women used their money to support the Whitewater Police Department’s K-9 program, the Whitewater Fire Department, and Pets for Vets.

In support of their ongoing good works, annually the crowned queens and princesses arrive at the scheduled practices to teach the new year’s participants a dance that will be performed during the pageant, and some pageant-related, on-stage skills, such as stage presence, walking without looking down at their feet, smiling at the crowd, and the pageant participants have a private interview with the year’s panel of judges.

“They learn to talk and speak eloquently, and make eye contact,” Bols said. 

The panel usually consists of three judges who come each year from all walks of life.

This year, the panel included a former Old Settlers Association Pageant Director Tami Rouse, Whitewater City Manager John Weidl and the United States of America Pageant’s Miss 2022 Sarah Niehueser. 

After the event and throughout the year they serve, Bols said, she hopes the program participants come away with and develop a renewed confidence and a sense of social responsibility.

The participants who win crowns are judged on several skills.

According to Bols, 25% of each contestant’s score is based on their interview, 25% on casual wear, 25% on evening wear and the responses to their on-stage question, and 25% is based on their philanthropical participation.

Royalty emerge in the following categories: girls ages 3-5 are each crowned princesses, and receive the title of Mini Miss Whitewater. They only need participate to earn the title. Girls competing for the title of Little Miss Whitewater are between the ages of 6 and 9. The contestant with the highest score will be crowned queen. Girls competing for the title of Junior Miss Whitewater are between the ages of 10 and 13. A high point-getter will be crowned queen. Girls and young women competing for the title of Teen Miss Whitewater are between the ages of 14 and 19, with one queen emerging, and young women competing for the title of Miss Whitewater are between the ages of 20 and 25, with one queen crowned during the pageant.

“We work with a fluid concept,” Bols said, meaning that contestants can sometimes be moved into different age brackets, depending on the number of overall competitors who come forward to compete in the pageant that year.

This year, the pageant began with three Mini Miss Whitewater contestants, but one had to drop out, Bols said, so two princesses were crowned. Eight girls competed for the title of Little Miss Whitewater, six for Junior Miss Whitewater, four for Teen Miss Whitewater, and three for Miss Whitewater.

After the girls and young women are crowned, they ride in the Fourth of July parade. In the days that follow, the girls, themselves, develop their appearance schedule.

“They talk amongst themselves by phone or through social media, and coordinate the events and appearances they’d like to make,” Bols said, adding that she serves as a resource and advisor during that process.

Typically, she said, the princesses and queens ride in a lot of parades, and they attend area fundraisers like the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast and the United Way’s Chili Cook-off.

Recently, she said, they sponsored a “Barbie” night at the Whitewater Cinemas movie theater.

The event was held on Monday, July 31, and some 140 people attended, Bols said. 

The event featured a pre-show party, complete with pink cotton candy and vendors who sold Barbie accessories.

The girls and young women gave away pink sunglasses and there was an opportunity to win a Barbie-themed gift basket, which included movie tickets for a future cinematic show, Bols noted.   

“Every movie ticket holder was entered into the raffle,” she said, and the Sweet Spot, a Whitewater-based restaurant, was on hand selling treats. Ten percent of Sweet Spot sales were donated to the royals to help fund future events, Bols said.

This year, she said, she anticipates that the queens and princesses will use some of their funds to support the Holiday Helpers program, which she described as a Whitewater-based program similar to Toys for Tots.

Looking ahead to next year, Bols said the Fourth of July Festival will embrace the Disney-influenced theme: “Have a Magical Fourth of July.”

The pageant, too, will develop its show based around the festival’s theme, she said. 

Photos from the 2023 Fourth of July Miss Whitewater pageant follow.