Judges named for Friday’s Peony Pageant

VW independent staff and submitted information

The Van Wert Peony Festival Pageant Committee has named judges for this year’s pageant, scheduled for 7 p.m. this Friday, April 1, at LifeHouse Church in Van Wert. The winner of the pageant will be crowned Queen Jubilee XLVII.

This year’s judges are Teri Theiss, Brooke (Etzkorn) Schroeder and Donna Boerger.

Teri Theiss has spent her whole career in the healthcare field starting as a pharmacy tech in high school and is now an LPN who is working towards her RN degree. She aspires to become a certified legal nurse consultant in the near future.

She is currently reigning as Elite Ms Ohio U.S. United and most recently, Midwest Queen of Queens U.S. United. Her personal platform is burn prevention through education and also supporting the pageant’s platform of breast cancer awareness. She has held many local, state, national and international titles with different pageant systems but feels that U.S. United is her home.

She is involved in her community by collecting pop tabs for Akron Children’s Hospital, donating to the homeless charities in her area, attending and volunteering at breast cancer awareness events and emotionally supporting burn survivors such as herself. She has judged many pageants at both the local and state levels.

As a nurse, she has worked on the front lines at Kent State University at various testing centers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her free time, she enjoys traveling, attending live music events, entertaining in her home, long motorcycle rides, scrapbooking, tending to her flower beds and most of all visits from her children and granddaughter.

Brooke (Etzkorn) Schroeder is a 2005 graduate of Delphos St. John’s High School. Brooke represented her school in the 2002 Delphos Canal Days Pageant, the 2004 Delphos Canal Days Pageant, where she received second runner-up and Miss Congeniality, and the 2005 Peony Pageant, where she received second runner-up. She is also an alumni of Kim Hohman’s Dance Works.

After high school, she obtained a bachelors degree in Criminal Justice from Bowling Green State University. Her criminal justice career history includes employment as a corrections officer with two juvenile detention centers and nearly ten years as a felony probation officer. Her pageant experience continued as a co-director/choreographer for the Delphos Canal Days Pageant (2011-2015) and for the Miss Paulding County Pageant (2011-2013).

In 2014 she married her BGSU “falcon flame,” Barry Schroeder and they currently reside in Putnam County with their two daughters.

Donna Boerger is the reigning Ms. Heartland PRIME Ambassador 2022.

She is a mother, certified nutrition coach, seamstress, and pageant queen. Her hobbies include gardening, reading, painting, cooking healthy meals for her family, outdoor activities, and more.

She also enjoys volunteering and assisting with community service projects and activities.