Miss Green Bay Area winners promote volunteering

The newly crowned Miss Green Bay Area and Miss Green Bay Area's Outstanding Teen had a common message: Volunteer.

The winners of the 2015 pageant held Saturday night in the Meyer Theatre both competed with platforms promoting volunteerism.

Jennie Collins, 23, of Green Bay was crowned Miss Green Bay Area 2015 and Bailey Hanson, 16, of Green Bay was crowned Miss Green Bay Area's Outstanding Teen 2015.

Collins, a student at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, said she did 600 hours of community service before graduating high school. She said she missed her preparation day for the pageant because she was volunteering at an event.

"I really just want to educate youth on the importance of volunteerism and how it can be beneficial to them and make them successful later in life," Collins said.

Collins said she wanted to compete in pageants since she was a little girl watching them on TV.

"It was just amazing how they carried themselves and having that presence and poise," she said. "Just being a role model to young girls, that was my motivation. I wanted to be that role model to others that I had when I was a young girl."

Collins is on track to graduate from NWTC's respiratory care practitioner program next spring. She plans to continue on with her schooling in healthcare management.

Hanson, a student at Southwest High School in Green Bay, said she aspires to become an American sign language teacher.

She currently volunteers for an organization that supports families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

She, like Collins, had an interest in pageants since she was a young child. She said her mom was involved with pageants in Auburn, Wash., where she was born.

"When I was really little, it was because they had pretty dresses," Hanson said. "But really they had a certain essence about them. I know now that it was confidence. They could carry themselves and be themselves, and they had no fear."

Both Hanson and Collins received $1,000 college scholarships.

Collins will compete in the Miss Wisconsin pageant on June 20 in Oshkosh. From there, the statewide winner represents the Dairy State in the Miss America pageant on national TV in September.

Hanson will compete in the Miss Wisconsin Outstanding Teen pageant on June 19 in Oshkosh.

Seven women from throughout the region competed in the Miss Green Bay event in various categories that include evening gowns, talent, question and answer, and fitness with swimwear. Contestants hail from Green Bay, Appleton, Manitowoc, Two Rivers and elsewhere. Three competed in the outstanding teen event.

All of the contestants were "outstanding," said pageant director Michelle Keehan, the 2010 Miss Green Bay winner.

"These are the most organized girls I ever came across. They have just been an outstanding group," she said.

—arodewal@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @AdamGRodewald and on Facebook at Facebook.com/AdamGRodewald.

Miss Green Bay Area 2015

Jennie Collins

Talent: Comedic monologue

Education: NWTC

Major: Respiratory care

Platform: Volunteerism: The gift of giving

Favorite food: Cotton Candy

Can't live without: Starbucks

Miss Green Bay Area's Outstanding Teen 2015

Bailey Hanson

Talent: American sign language

Career ambitions: American sign language teacher

Education: Southwest High School

Platform: Volunteers: We're not paid because we're priceless

Favorite food: Subway

Interesting fact: She's afraid of escalators