Northland Mardi Gras Coronation

Attention parents of any Ambassador Court members!

Congratulations to our 2024 Mardi Gras Ambassador Court. What an amazing group of youth leaders. The Northland Community Club donates money to each member of the court’s cause they chose to compete for.

(R to L)
2nd Runner Up: Jordan Sandlin with a $75 donation to Power House Ladysmith
1st Runner Up: Savannah Burlingame with a $150 donation to Fishing Has No Boundaries.
Ambassador Select: Josie Lybert with a $75 donation to Women With Courage

And your 2024 Mardi Gras Ambassador Charley Nobles with a $200 donation to the American Foundation for Su***de Prevention-Wisconsin Chapter.

Make sure to congratulate them on their hard work when you see them this week at Mardi Gras.

We will be sharing each of our contestants today. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 14th at 5pm at the Ladysmith High School Auditorium. There is no cost to attend and lasts about an hour.

Charley Nobles of Bruce is the daughter of Marly and Josh Nobles. Charley is a senior at Bruce High School. She is involved in FFA, volleyball and track. She enjoys swimming, kayaking, fishing, traveling, and helping keep the community clean and safe. She works at Gateway Gourmet in Bruce. After graduation Charley would like to pursue a career in psychology.

Charley has chosen the American Foundation for Su***de Prevention-Wisconsin Chapter as her cause that she is competing for. For more information about her cause, check out their website: https://afsp.org/chapter/wisconsin.

We will be sharing each of our contestants today. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 14th at 5pm at the Ladysmith High School Auditorium. There is no cost to attend and lasts about an hour.

Savannah Burlingame of Holcombe is the daughter of Nick and Sabrina Burlingame. She is involved in FFA and LEOS Club. She enjoys volleyball, basketball, softball and reading. Savannah is employed teaching swimming lessons in Holcombe. After graduation she would like to pursue a career in social work or nursing.

Savannah has chosen Fishing Has No Boundaries as her cause that she is competing for. For more information about Savannah's cause, check out their website: https://www.facebook.com/FishingHasNoBoundariesChippewaValley/

We will be sharing each of our contestants today. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 14th at 5pm at the Ladysmith High School Auditorium. There is no cost to attend and lasts about an hour.

Josie Lybert of Conrath is the daughter of Troy and Deanna Lybert. Josephine is a senior who is homeschooled. She is actively involved in her church and likes to participate in sports. After graduation she plans to pursue Discipleship Training School in Africa.

Josie has chosen Women With Courage as her cause that she is competing for. For more information about Josie's cause, check out the Women With Courage's website: https://www.womenwithcourage.org/.

We will be sharing each of our contestants today. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 14th at 5pm at the Ladysmith High School Auditorium. There is no cost to attend. Event lasts about an hour.

Jordan Sandlin of Ladysmith is the daughter of Angela and Tim Mercer and Dale Sandlin. Jordan is a junior at the Ladysmith High School. She is involved in Impact, Power House, and church camp and her church Ladysmith Christian Church in Ladysmith. She enjoys art, anime, pictures and videos, and swimming. After graduation she would like to pursue a career as an animator or Youtuber.

Jordan has chosen Power House as her cause that she is competing for. For more information about Jordan's cause check out Power House's website here: https://www.powerhouseladysmith.com/.

Did you miss the chance to enter your child? Reach out to us by Saturday (tomorrow) at 3pm.

The Little Miss and Master Ambassador Coronation is open for all youth, both girls and boys are able to sign up for the older categories. The little miss and master will still be separated due to the larger group sizes for that age group.

If you have any questions send us a message or call/text 715-403-1068.

Last call! Calling all 2024-2025 juniors and seniors(both girls and boys)! Bring awareness and raise money for a cause of your choice.

It’s open to anyone who will be a junior or a senior next school year. The competition consists of an interview with the judges, a 2-4 minute speech on a topic of your choosing(not a school speech, but something important to you), and a Q&A part.

Back again is our Competing for a Cause! If you are selected for the court, your cause will receive a donation from the Northland Community Club on your behalf. We will have a practice night to help anyone interested with interviewing and public speaking.

All participants will get to participate in all 4 parades, including the water parade.

Reach out to us if you have questions at 715-403-0265 or reach out through messenger. Registration link in comment section.

Sign up is now open for the Little Miss and Master Ambassador Coronation. To offer opportunities for all youth, both girls and boys are able to sign up for the older categories. The little miss and master will still be separated due to the larger group sizes for that age group.

The sign up sheet is located in the comment section or printed copies an be picked up at City Hall or the Rusk County Community Library starting Tuesday. (Don't forget to sign up for the Summer Reading Program through the library when stopping there.) Deadline to apply for the coronation is July 10th. If you have any questions send us a message or call/text 715-403-1068.

Calling all 2024-2025 juniors and seniors! Bring awareness and raise money for a cause of your choice.

Our application to run for Mardi Gras is out now. It’s open to anyone who will be a junior or a senior next school year. The competition consists of an interview with the judges, a 2-4 minute speech on a topic of your choosing, and a Q&A part.
Back again is our Competing for a Cause! If you are selected for the court, your cause will receive a donation from the Northland Community Club on your behalf. We will have a practice night to help anyone interested with interviewing and public speaking.

All participants will get to participate in all 4 parades, including the water parade.

Reach out to us if you have questions at 715-403-0265 or reach out through messenger. Registration link in comment section.

Calling all 2024-2025 juniors and seniors (current sophomores & juniors)!

Our application to run for Mardi Gras is out now. It’s open to anyone who will be a junior or a senior next school year. The competition consists of an interview with the judges, a 2-4 minute speech on a topic of your choosing, and a Q&A part.

Back again is our Competing for a Cause! If you are selected for the court, your cause will receive a donation from the Northland Community Club on your behalf. All participants will get to participate in all 4 parades, including the water parade.

Reach out to us if you have questions at 715-403-0265 or reach out through messenger.

Registration: https://forms.gle/Re3oZo3JizamwXpu6

The Northland Community Club is an organization that strives to offer opportunities for the community, especially for our youth. One area that this has occurred is during our Mardi Gras pageants with youth ranging from 4 to 18 years old. Traditions are important for our group and we want those to continue for years to come and for them to grow.

Several of our members remember when our Mardi Gras Pageant was quite large and required teachers from schools to vote on junior girls to run for the court. Some of the downsides of this was that it limited this to specific students running and from specific schools. Students that lived in the area that didn’t attend that school or were maybe homeschooled were not given the chance to run. The competition consisted of a panel interview, introductions, a talent, a speech, and posing (walking on stage). As the years have changed the number of youth who signed up declined. In 2022 with lower numbers coming out of Covid we opened it up to sophomores and juniors and saw an increase in girls signing up. The competition also changed to be a panel interview, a speech, and a live Q&A.

In 2023 we again struggled to get youth to sign up, even with adding the Competing for a Cause for the youth to raise awareness for their cause of choice. We had several boys ask if they could run on all levels. There has always been a category for Little Masters for boys 4 to 6 years old. We have had many parents ask about their 8 or 10 year old boy being able to run after we had boys sign up to run for the high school coronation in 2023.

Now remember our goal to offer opportunities for youth. We have thought long and hard about being an organization that upholds traditions and offers opportunities for youth. We have made the decision to move on from a royalty court with queens/kings and princesses and princes. This year we will be hosting the Northland Mardi Gras Ambassador Court. We are choosing to maintain the traditions of offering youth the opportunity to represent their community, compete against other youth, and to work on skill building along the way. Our courts, especially our high school students represent our area throughout the whole week, are actively involved in the Mardi Gras festival, and they get to connect with others from the area they may not know.

Our Ambassador Courts will be for all ages with both boys and girls being able to compete in each category. We can’t stress this enough that our competition is not a beauty pageant where our youth are judged on how they look or what they wear. They ARE judged on how they represent themselves, how they prepare, how they meet the different categories criteria and when they let their character show. There is nothing in the judging criteria that is gender specific.

Mardi Gras is a huge event that requires a lot of work. The Northland Community Club is a small group that takes on a lot to make this a reality. We do it because we care and want to see traditions live on. Even with changes to the tradition, the tradition will continue with the center piece of that tradition being showcasing our youth and finding good examples of youth in the community. We ask that you be kind because your words matter. Our youth saw the comments last year and it had an impact on them. If you would like to ask any questions, please reach out to us privately. If you have a youth who will be a junior or senior in 2024-2025 and they are interested in running, we will have more information soon posted on our page. The younger ambassador information will be available in the next few weeks.

Congratulations to our 2023 Mardi Gras Court. We had a great set of contestants. We are so proud of all of you!

Left to right: 1st princess Sara Ahrens, Queen Isabelle van Doorn, Congeniality Matthew Frey, and 2nd prince Eli Knoll.

Check out the full schedule for this week’s festivities on the Ladysmith Northland Mardi Gras page.

It's Coronation Day!

Join us today at the (new) Ladysmith Elementary School for one or both of our free coronation events. Little Miss & Master(4-15 year olds) starts at 2pm, doors open at 1:30pm. The Mardi Gras Coronation starts at 5pm, doors open at 4:30pm. Come support area youth as they compete to represent Rusk County.

The Northland Community Club will be selling raffle tickets, squares for the various boards, Mardi Gras themed water bottle stickers, popcorn, soda, and water.

We will be sharing each of our contestants. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 16th at 5pm at the Ladysmith Elementary School. There is no cost to attend.

Lila Baker of Bruce is the daughter of Ashley Baker and Kenny Meisegeier and Joshua and Marly Nobles, she has two sisters and a brother. Lila is a senior at Bruce High School. She is involved in FFA, volleyball, basketball, the Bruce Fire Department, and farming. After graduation Lila would like to pursue a career as a surgical nurse. Lila has chosen the Bruce Fire Department as her cause that she is competing for.

We will be sharing each of our contestants over the next few days. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 16th at 5pm at the Ladysmith Elementary School. There is no cost to attend.

Matthew Frey of Ladysmith is the son of Tiffany Frey and has a sister. Matthew is a senior at Rice Lake High School. He enjoys giving back to the community, swimming, hiking, being outdoors and working with hands. He has volunteered with fall decorations in Rice Lake and helped with trash clean up. After graduation Matthew would like to pursue a career doing carpentry or as a truck driver. Matthew has chosen the Women With Courage Foundation as his cause that he is competing for.

We will be sharing each of our contestants over the next few days. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 16th at 5pm at the Ladysmith Elementary School. There is no cost to attend.

Sara Aherns of Ladysmith is the daughter of Tracy Francois Aherns and Wade Aherns, she has 1 sister and two brothers. Sara is a senior doing homeschooling. She is involved in Teen Tuesdays through the Rusk County Community Library. Sara enjoys singing, biking, and reading. After graduation Sara would like to pursue a career as a vocal coach. Sara has chosen the Rusk County Animal Shelter as her cause that she is competing for.

We will be sharing each of our contestants over the next few days. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 16th at 5pm at the Ladysmith Elementary School. There is no cost to attend.

Eli Knoll of Conrath is the son of Kate Knoll and has two sisters and three brothers . Eli is a junior at Wisconsin Virtual School. He is involved in Power House Youth Center, Rusk Restorative Youth Program’s Teen Court, and Teen Tuesdays at the Rusk County Community Library. He enjoys working on cars, hunting, fishing, and camping. After graduation Eli would like to pursue a career in welding and one day run his own welding shop. Eli has chosen Power House Youth Center as his cause that he is competing for.

We will be sharing each of our contestants over the next few days. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 16th at 5pm at the Ladysmith Elementary School. There is no cost to attend.

Isabelle van Doorn of Tony is the daughter of Jess and Garrett van Doorn and has two brothers and one sister. Isabelle is a junior at Flambeau High School. She is involved in 4H, FFA, Student Council, track, History Club, Wisconsin Holstein Association, American Guernsey Association, and the Ayrshire Association. She is on the A Honor Roll and enjoys showing her cows, taking gator rides, working with her pigs for the fair, kayaking, fishing, and spending time with her two nephews. After graduation Isabelle would like to pursue a career in the agriculture field. Isabelle has chosen the Rusk County Animal Shelter as her cause that she is competing for.

We will be sharing each of our contestants over the next few days. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 16th at 5pm at the Ladysmith Elementary School. There is no cost to attend.

Charley Nobles of Bruce is the daughter of Marly and Josh Nobles and she has two sisters. Charley is a junior at Bruce High School. She is involved in FFA, volleyball, track, and basketball. She enjoys swimming, kayaking, and helping keep the community clean and safe. After graduation Charley would like to pursue a career in marine biology. Charley has chosen her school’s Backpack Program as her cause that she is competing for.

We’ve been asked about the decision to allow guys to run for Mardi Gras Court. We hope that you will read all of this because we believe it is important. If you’re looking for the cliff notes, the plan is to have one court. If a young woman wins they will be Queen or a princess and if a young man man wins they would be crowned a King or prince. The court winners will receive a donation made to the cause of their choice. Each contestant is judged on an interview, their speech, and 3 Q&A questions. Please remember that these are teens that you are discussing and your words matter.

The Mardi Gras Court has a long tradition of good youth representatives representing Mardi Gras, the community, and their schools. Having positive youth representation has always been an important aspect of the coronation. The courts have been made up of youth leaders, volunteers, they’re active in their community, they’re in good standing with their school, and those who are motivated to put themselves out there for the coronation competition. The Mardi Gras Coronation is not a beauty pageant, but instead it is meant to be a search for good youth representatives and to offer opportunities to youth to work on their interview and public speaking skills.

Over the last several years it has been harder and harder to get youth to sign up for court. It’s why the planning committee has made changes to the coronation so more youth would be encouraged to sign up. Some of these examples have been allowing both juniors and seniors to run because we weren’t enough seniors signing up. The talent portion was changed to a Q&A portion. We had youth not wanting to sign up because the talents they wanted to share couldn’t be done on a stage. The planning committee discussed it and decided that having a live Q&A was a good fit since the goal was to learn more about who the contestants were and what their insights are on a variety of topics.

One of the most exciting changes that were made to the coronation was the Competing for a Cause. This was added as a way for the community to hear what kind of things are important to youth and encourage juniors and seniors to sign up. Still with these changes it has been a struggle to get youth to sign up. With a week before the deadline we still only had a few sign up. We had people asking if guys were allowed to sign up. There has been a lot of discussion about it and because of several factors such as there being no physical components that are judged, low numbers in sign ups, and the ability to offer an opportunity to youth who were interested in representing their community, we decided to allow guys to run.

All of our contestants this year chose organizations that are important to them. It’s great to hear how the organizations they chose are important to them. We want to base our court and community representation on the contestants’ character and in the way they present themselves during the competition. That’s what should be important.

We ask that you choose kindness when talking about all of our contestants. Our planning committee has members that ran when they were in high school and understand from experience the amount of work and nerves that happen when running for court. Let’s work to empower youth and encourage them to want to be involved in things. That is a major challenge that all volunteer organizations are facing, including our own. There are SO many hours that go into hosting Mardi Gras and it’s a lot of work. Many of us have spent months planning and working long hours in our free time to make Mardi Gras happen and be the best it can be. We need more volunteers in all our community organizations. Getting youth involved early does make a difference. Please consider signing up to volunteer, there is a major shortage.

If you have questions about any of this please reach out so we can have a conversation. Just remember you don’t know how your words may impact others. Choose kindness.

We will be sharing each of our contestants over the next few days. The public is welcome to attend the Mardi Gras Coronation this Sunday July 16th at 5pm at the Ladysmith Elementary School. There is no cost to attend.

Savanna Hash of Ladysmith is the daughter of Mary Hash. She has two sisters and two brothers. Savanna is a senior at Ladysmith High School. She is involved in the Northland Community Club. She enjoys science, animals, and volunteering. After graduation she would like to pursue a career as a veterinarian technician. Savanna has chosen Wi Hemophilia Foundation as her cause that she is competing for.

Calling all area royalty!

Join us on Sunday July 23rd from 11:30am to noon, for the High Tea with Royalty. Beverages and snacks will be provided. The tea is located at 624 E 6th St S Ladysmith (old elementary school).

Make sure to pre-register for the parade. The parade route is along Worden and Miner Avenues.

Parade pre-Registration
https://forms.gle/c9G9egpfxZuiDAyJ6

For questions please reach out. Call Tiffany at 7154030265.

LAST CALL for registration!

After our last information session we have some updates. If your school is not listed below and you’d like to run, please reach out, we are willing to be flexible. Second we have our first guys running this year, at least to our knowledge. The most important thing to us is that we have youth involved and that they are positive role models. Whether you’re a guy or girl and want to run for Mardi Gras, please sign up.

We are looking for the 2023 Mardi Court to represent the Northland Mardi Gras. The application is open for those who will be Juniors and Seniors during the 2023-2024 school year.

The deadline is TODAY! The application can be found here https://forms.gle/rxVCcSco2LpKfWQV6

Please reach out if you have any questions.

There are 2 days left to register to run.

After our last information session we have some updates. If your school is not listed below and you’d like to run, please reach out, we are willing to be flexible. Second we have our first guys running this year, at least to our knowledge. The most important thing to us is that we have youth involved and that they are positive role models. Whether you’re a guy or girl and want to run for Mardi Gras, please sign up.

We are looking for the 2023 Mardi Court to represent the Northland Mardi Gras. The application is open for those who will be Juniors and Seniors during the 2023-2024 school year.

The deadline is June 24th. The application can be found here https://forms.gle/rxVCcSco2LpKfWQV6

Please reach out if you have any questions.

There are 4 days left to register to run. After last night’s information session we have some updates. If your school is not listed below and you’d like to run, please reach out, we are willing to be flexible. Second we have our first guys running this year, at least to our knowledge. The most important thing to us is that we have youth involved and that they are positive role models. Whether you’re a guy or girl and want to run for Mardi Gras, please sign up.

We are looking for the 2023 Mardi Court to represent the Northland Mardi Gras. The application is open for those who will be Juniors and Seniors during the 2023-2024 school year.

The deadline is June 24th. The application can be found here https://forms.gle/rxVCcSco2LpKfWQV6

Please reach out if you have any questions.

We have an informational meeting for anyone who has an interest in running for the Northland Mardi Gras Court TOMORROW night at 5pm at Memorial Park in the Veterans Pavillon.

We are looking for the 2023 Queen and her Court to represent the Northland Mardi Gras. The application is open for those who will be Juniors and Seniors during the 2023-2024 school year.

The deadline is June 24th. The application can be found here https://forms.gle/rxVCcSco2LpKfWQV6

Please reach out if you have any questions.

We have an informational meeting for anyone who has an interest in running for the Northland Mardi Gras Court on Tuesday June 20th at 5pm at Memorial Park in the Veterans Pavillon.

We are looking for the 2023 Queen and her Court to represent the Northland Mardi Gras. The application is open for those who will be Juniors and Seniors during the 2023-2024 school year.

This year's coronation will take place Sunday July 16th. The coronation will consist of an interview with a on-on-one interview with the judges followed by the coronation that is open to the public. During the coronation contestants will give a short speech on a topic of their choice and a Q&A session.

Notable things all contestants get to do is ride in the Venetian Night Parades, the Sunday parades, and be a part of the Mardi Gras festivities. If you are unsure and want to speak to someone, send us a message.

New this Year, Competing for a Cause! The Northland Community Club is all about giving back to our community. This year we are asking the contestants to compete for a cause of their choice. They will select a community organization, school club, or cause to compete for. The Queen and the Court winners will have a donation made to their causes presented on their behalf. We look forward to hearing what causes are important to our contestants and why.

The deadline is June 24th. The application can be found here https://forms.gle/rxVCcSco2LpKfWQV6

Please reach out if you have any questions.