Mrs. Minnesota America 2024
KATINA
#KeepHerConfident
Katina’s platform #KeepHerConfident joins in advocacy with the national body positivity campaign sponsored by Dove and Nike to help keep girls’ in sports with downloadable tools for coaches to promote positive body image in athletes. This platform is personal as her now 14 year old daughter is a competitive swimmer – recognizing that this is a very body conscious sport. According to Dove’s research, teenage girls drop out of sports due to body image concerns at 2x the rate of boys. Katina leads by example and wants young athletes to know that she didn’t give up on herself or her health and they shouldn’t give up on themselves either due to body insecurities in the heavily influential age of social media. In sports environments both on and off the field, adolescent & teenaged girls can often feel exposed and vulnerable to judgment and comparison, not only for what their bodies can and can’t do, but also for how they look. With childhood obesity rates also on the rise, by keeping girls in sports, this will encourage healthier lifestyles and lessen the risk of obesity and its related illnesses in the future. Her platform is also poignant given the rise in popularity with women’s sports, especially in an Olympic year, and showcasing positive female athlete role models such as Minnesota’s Olympians gymnast Suni Lee and swimmer Regan Smith.
For additional information on her platform, please visit:
www.bodyconfidentsport.com
www.coachingher.com and
www.dove.com/us/en/stories/campaigns/confident-sports.html.
Additional platform information can be found at https://tuckercenter.umn.edu or her social media sites on Facebook and Instagram or the Mrs. Minnesota America Facebook and Instagram sites.
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MY STORY
At the age of 7, Katina Schroeder was entered by her mother into her first pageant and was crowned the 1979 Junior Queen of Spring Lake Park. Since then, she has had a background of 30 years in pageantry having won both local and state titles. As a child, she remembers watching the Mrs. Minnesota pageant televised live from the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre and dreamed of one day capturing that title.
Katina’s journey through pageantry wasn’t always rhinestones and roses. She last stepped off of the Mrs. Minnesota stage in 2006 & 2007 which marked her last appearances in pageantry prior to the birth of her daughter. After her daughter’s arrival in 2009, she found solace in food due to post-partum depression, negative self-image and ignoring the importance of making her health a priority. These were the negative catalysts that over the years compounded in a diagnosis of obesity at almost 300 pounds. In 2021 with the loving support of her husband, family and friends, she realized she had the strength and power to take back control of her health. Returning to a diet and exercise regime combined with medical intervention was daunting, but it marked the beginning of a journey to reclaim her life. Having shed 135 pounds and proudly coming up on 3 years of maintaining, she strives to be a role model for a wholly healthy lifestyle which includes physical activity, good nutrition and therapy to address adverse relationships with food. She proudly stepped back on to the Mrs. Minnesota stage in 2023 and had the honor of placing 3rd runner-up which reignited her love of pageantry. Her lifelong dream was realized on Sunday, June 2nd when she was crowned Mrs. Minnesota America 2024 after 4 tries over the course of 18 years. During her year she would like to share her personal story and how it relates to her platform.
Katina resides in Burnsville with her husband of 18 years Michael, her daughter Raina and a small zoo consisting of three dogs and two birds. She enjoys hosting backyard pool parties, accessorizing her neon green Jeep, being a parent volunteer for both of the Prior Lake Girls Swim and Dive team along with the South Metro Storm swim team and reading about women’s history in the Renaissance era. She holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in English and Literature from Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. For information on the Mrs. Minnesota pageant or how to become a contestant, please visit www.mrsminnesotaamerica.com.
Victoria's Voice Foundation is the corporate philanthropy of the Mrs. America organization. In addition to the state community work of state Mrs. winners, they also work through the Mrs. America organization to raise awareness of drug overdose and substance abuse.
The Foundation was created by David Siegel after he and his wife Jackie lost their beautiful daughter, Victoria, to a drug overdose on June 6, 2015. She was only 18.
Victoria, or “Rikki,” as she liked to be called, was the oldest of seven siblings, a recent high school graduate, and a dreamer with a tremendous heart. She had a world of opportunity in front of her.
The Siegel’s tragic, unimaginable loss has inspired their complete devotion to shining a bright light on a dark issue that has crippled our nation. Through the Victoria’s Voice Foundation, the Siegel family is bringing this matter to the national stage, championing specific ways we can reduce drug experimentation, addiction and overdose - we will change the reality of drug addiction in our country.
The Siegel's singular mission is saving lives so we don’t lose our future generation. They don’t want other families to go through what they went through; to lose what they lost.
WHAT THE FOUNDATION DOES...
Through Victoria’s Voice Foundation, it is taking aim at reducing drug experimentation, addiction and overdose death by supporting:
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Legislation to encourage locking up prescription medications. Fifty-three percent of kids who use illicit prescription drugs get them out of a relative’s or friend’s medicine cabinet.
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Legislation for the co-prescription of naloxone every time an opiate painkiller is prescribed. Naloxone is a completely safe opiate-reversal drug that can pull someone out of an overdose state—even on the verge of death—into an immediate withdrawal. It is life-saving and non-addictive. We believe this antidote to death should be carried by every first responder and made available through every university and college.
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Implementation of a policy platform for random drug testing in partnership with educational institutions.
In lockstep with the foundation’s focus, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), bipartisan federal legislation, is the best opportunity we have to stop and reverse the drug epidemic. CARA is a comprehensive response to addiction that includes prevention, drug treatment, recovery and support, as well as criminal-justice reform.
To learn more about Victoria's Voice, please click HERE