While the first official Miss Czech-Slovak Wisconsin State Pageant was held the summer of 1999 during the Phillips Czechoslovakian Community Festival, our story starts a few years earlier. In 1996, we sent our first Wisconsin Czech Representative to the national pageant in NE as part of the “at-large” program. In 1998, John Fiala & his wife (the founders of the Miss Czech-Slovak US Pageant) sat down with Toni Brendel Rohrig and discussed starting an official pageant in WI. She said she’d give it a try! In 1999, The Phillips Czechoslovakian Community Festival Committee voted to sponsor a Miss Czech-Slovak WI State Queen Pageant during their annual festival and Toni was appointed State Director by the national founder John Fiala. A Little Sister program (like at Nationals) was instituted at the same time, and national rules and procedures were adopted by the state pageant committee. In 2004, the pageant almost came to an end, just five years after its conception, but through the letters of former pageant members who encouraged its continuation so young Czech-Slovaks could continue to learn about their heritage and take pride in it, the Miss Czech-Slovak WI Pageant continued. In 2006, we added a new non-competitive component to the pageant created by former Princess Ashley Brown: The Queen’s Royal Court. This was created to encourage the young women between the ages of 13-17 to stay invested in their heritage via the pageant, and to become a training ground for becoming a potential queen. Over the years, we have had four Pageant Directors: our venerable founder Toni Brendel (12 years), Vernette Moravek (10 years) who kept the pageant fire burning with her "Czech"mate heritage, Luanne Peterson (4 years), who took over after Covid nearly knocked the Festival and Pageant out after having not been celebrated for two years and currently Trinity Pesko, former Miss Czech Slovak WI and Miss Czech Slovak US. The change was made from Little Sisters to Little Siblings to allow boys to be involved in their heritage. A name change from Queen's Royal Court to Junior Royalty was introduced in 2026 to more reflect the idea that everyone involved in the pageant becomes a member of the Queen's Royal Court. Over the last 25+ years, several hundred girls and young women (and now boys) have been introduced to their Czech, Slovak, Moravian, Silesian, and Rusyn heritage and are now returning with their own children to the pageant. Because of Covid in 2020, and the ever increasing challenge to find volunteers to help with the festival, both events became one-day events necessitating several changes (including moving to the outdoors). Yet the essence of both the pageant and the festival remains the same: involve the youth of today in their heritage and preserve it for the future.
