by Dennis Dalman
A “first” for Sartell will occur on the evening of June 7 when a “Miss Sartell” and two city princesses will be crowned at a pageant the night before the weekend Sartell SummerFest begins.
The pageant will start at 7 p.m. Friday, June 7 at The Waters Church in the city.
In an interview with the Newsleaders, Sartell resident Keli Trautman explained how the Miss Sartell concept developed.
During the annual Sartell Winter Haven event, a queen was crowned, but that was more than 60 years ago.
Trautman is one of four board members on the Miss Sartell Committee. The others are also Sartell residents – Dayna Laudenbach-Deters, Kathy Sauerer and Lindsey Trimbo. Trimbo was Trautman’s daughter’s kindergarten teacher.
Trimbo and Sauerer had been involved with organizing the Miss Sauk Rapids pageant. Trimbo and Laudenbach-Deters served as two of the judges for that event. Trimbo and Sauerer are both board members of the Miss Sauk Rapids pageant. For the past three years, Trautman had been helping Trimbo with her pageant duties.
“One day, we just said, ‘Hey, why not have a pageant in Sartell too?’, ” Trautman said.
And thus, the four women got together and started planning. Last December, they filed paperwork with the State of Minnesota to begin their nonprofit organization.
Now, the women are trying to inform residents about the upcoming pageant and putting out a call for candidates.
“This is not a beauty pageant,” Trautman said with emphasis. Many personal qualities of the young women candidates will be taken into account by the judges who will choose the trio of winners.
Trautman quoted Chelsey B., a Miss Sauk Rapids ambassador (2014-15) who said, “True beauty is on the inside and shown best when we are 100 percent ourselves.”
Candidates must be between the ages of 16 and 20 by the date of the pageant, June 7.
The trio chosen will represent Sartell as public “ambassadors” at events and activities in Sartell and elsewhere, such as being featured in parades in the area.
To find out more candidate criteria, including a question-and-answer essay and an application form, visit sartellroyalty@gmail.com.
Like Sauk Rapids, Sartell will also soon have a pageant to choose a queen and two princesses to represent the city as “ambassadors.” This royal trio was selected in Sauk Rapids last year. Brynn Molitor (center) was named Miss Sauk Rapids. The two princesses were Trinity Maki (left) and Amber Konietzko (right).
