Alice's Role With Dairy Has Expanded
by Connie Seefeldt, WMMB District #2 Director

For more than half a century, Alice in Dairyland has been an ambassador for Wisconsin agriculture. Since the first Alice toured the state in 1948, her role has changed over the years much the way our agricultural landscape and ways of doing business have changed.

This year's 56th Alice in Dairyland, Natalie Parmentier of Green Bay, was recently selected after three days of presentations, interviews, writing exercises and tours. It's a rigorous selection process, and I'd like to congratulate all the finalists who competed for this important position. Alice is now selected on what more closely resembles an interview process for professional employment. Because that's what each candidate is applying for–a full-time job with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

But Alice's job extends beyond DATCP. Now she's also working for Wisconsin dairy producers. Last year, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board was presented with an opportunity to get more involved with the Alice program, using Alice's visibility to leverage current WMMB dairy promotion programs. Until last year, DATCP's sole support of the Alice program mandated uniform promotion of all Wisconsin's agricultural products. With WMMB's co-sponsorship of the Alice program, the Wisconsin dairy industry receives greater priority on Alice's busy schedule.

Alice in Dairyland typically spends about half of her time in Wisconsin schools, teaching students about agriculture careers, nutrition, Wisconsin's agricultural heritage, and the bounty of products produced in this state. Sound familiar? Those objectives mirror several of the Wisconsin Dairy Council's objectives. Collaborating with DATCP's Alice in Dairyland program gives WMMB and the Wisconsin Dairy Council greater efficiency in reaching Wisconsin's school children.

Plus, Alice generates millions of dollars in media attention, including television and newspaper interviews; appearances at county fairs and trade shows; and, of course, specifically promotes Wisconsin dairy products. Her travels throughout the year take her across the state and country–all with the primary focus of bringing attention to Wisconsin agricultural products.

I am so pleased with the positive results this partnership with Alice produced for WMMB in just one year. An entire strategy was developed involving Alice, in WMMB's Dairy Impact campaign and the Dairy Council's school nutrition program. The "Alice Blitzes," as we referred to them, bombarded Wisconsin's larger communities with Alice classroom visits; Dairy Impact billboards and advertisements; and coordinated interviews with newspaper, television and radio reporters.

The result was thousands of dollars in free publicity and nearly 10,000 children reached with the dairy nutrition message. We've historically had difficulty getting dairy messages into Milwaukee, but with the power of our "Alice Blitz" team, we reached 61 Milwaukee schools and got our messages into numerous Milwaukee media outlets.

Hats off to the departing Alice, Angela Hemauer, who participated in those classroom visits and media interviews. She's an excellent example of Alice's continued transformation as a current role model for today's children. Angela didn't just bring her dairy background from her childhood on a dairy farm and her degree from Cornell University to her role as Alice. She also could tell the kids about her healthy lifestyle, since she runs marathons in her spare time.

The new Alice takes up Angela's baton as another great role model for state children. Natalie has a wide variety of experiences within the agricultural industry-including work as a herdsman on a dairy/beef farm. She has a special connection to our target audience, as she holds a Master's Degree in K-12 School Counseling and is a guidance counselor at Green Bay Preble High School.

She's also hit the ground running. She already represented our industry at numerous June Dairy Month activities since her selection as Alice. You may already have seen her at some of the events in your community.

As an $18.5 billion part of the state's economy, the Wisconsin dairy industry will garner its fair share of Natalie's time and efforts. I encourage you to take the opportunity to meet our new Alice when she visits your area and support her as she represents our important industry.

Connie Seefeldt is dairy producer from Coleman, Wisconsin. As sole proprietors, Connie and her husband, James farm 575 acres and milk 140 Holsteins and Brown Swiss with help from their children Ken (Lisa) and Ben. Connie has served on the WMMB board since 1994 and is currently a member of the Cheese Committee.