By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
It must be something in the Yaw Street water.
New Miss Dowagiac Sara Anne Ausra's neighbor is 2005 queen Courtney Dufour.
It's also the neighborhood which produced 1992 queen Rose Magyar Gillesby and where 1988 queen Ann Harris Allen lives.
Saturday night, with tap-dancing escort Adam Hess feeding in oversized nickels, the first finalist, Katie Hewitt, emerged from the diner's jukebox, but Sara caught many in the audience off guard when she instead popped out of a soda frothing with bubbly balloons.
"My dad (Bob) was looking at the jukebox and he didn't really see me come out," she said.
"I was glad to come out of the soda because I thought it was cute. Adam was in my tap class a couple of years ago and it's unbelievable how good he is, but I never did get to see him."
"I knew something was up when he acted like he couldn't dance," added Sara's mother, Patty.
Sara has attended Miss Dowagiac pageants since she was a little girl.
"I knew from that very first contest I would like to participate" and "make a lasting senior memory."
In fact, she said her first time was with some of her fellow contestants, including First Runner-up Molly Seurynck, Katie Hewitt and Brittney Hill, a friend since kindergarten, for Homecoming Queen Amber Clark's birthday.
Saturday night, "I could hear Amber cheering me on," she said.
Sara and her older sister, Erin, taught themselves to ride horses. "The first couple of years at fair we didn't place, but then we did and it was so much fun."
Her horse, Star, is a 27-year-old Arabian. Sara was first runner-up for Cass County Fair princess. She has been on Dowagiac's equestrian team for four years and in TEAM 4-H for six years.
Her ceramic piece of a dragon placed second at the Michigan State Fair. Her fourth year is coming up in ceramics, which is taught by Everett Potter. He is also her instructor for basket weaving, which she started before ceramics.
Sara plays and coaches basketball, but she thinks she's better at softball, where she's an outfielder. She played Michiana fall softball in 2006. Sara, who is 5-foot-7, with hazel eyes, started as a freshman point guard in basketball and advanced through forward her sophomore and junior years to her current position, center.
This is her second season coaching Patrick Hamilton Middle School fifth and sixth grade girls in basketball. She is also a "buddy" for Challenger League baseball. "You put the ball on the tee for them and make sure the kids don't get hurt because some of them can hit really well. Some are in wheelchairs and need help swinging and you run with them to make sure they're going to run to first and not third. You encourage them."
"I've been in softball longer," she said. "When I was little, my dad and I went to all the clinics."
Another passion is paintball, which she either does in the yard with her sister or in Niles. "It's so much fun!" she says. She incorporated paintball into some of her senior pictures.
"Chris (Primley, her boyfriend, who was an usher), got me an automatic for Christmas. My sister has a little pump gun. It's so unfair!"
Watching snow pile up Jan. 28, she said snowmobiling is her primary winter activity. "I'm more of a summer person."
She likes being the "baby" of the three children. She didn't have to wait as long as Erin to get her ears pierced. "Doing stuff earlier works for me," Sara smiled.
It was a pretty late night. Family and friends came over after the reception at Dowagiac Middle School for finger food.
"The afterglow was fun. I talked to a lot of other queens," she said Sunday morning. "Yes and no it's sunk in. When I got in the shower I thought, 'I'm Miss Dowagiac,' like, 'Whoa! I can't believe it.' (Winning) never entered my mind until maybe when I was doing my slow walks."
This year, for the first time, judges conducted contestant interviews the weekend prior to the pageant.
"They asked questions about Dowagiac," but one which caught her off guard was, "If I was a candle, would I want to burn bright for a short period of time or dull for a long time? I said, 'Short and bright.' You're trying to think real fast and it just sort of came out of my mouth. I was fine going in, but when I came out, I couldn't stop shaking. Last night, when she put the crown on my head, I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what to do. I got teary-eyed."
As a busy queen she will need to be the kind of candle able to burn its wick at both ends.
After 15 years of dance at Miss Kathy's, "Dancing Through the Decades" wasn't as unnerving as the waiting. "You wait and you wait and it just builds," Sara said. "After the dance I calmed down, but as my slow walk got closer, my heart just started pounding. I was fine when we all stayed on stage for the second slow walk. I liked our dance routine (choreographed by Amy Rose of Encore). A lot of the girls are dancers."
Of course waiting is hard for the queen who described herself in three words as trustworthy, athletic and spontaneous.
"I don't like sitting around," she admitted. "I'll say to Chris, 'Let's go four-wheeling,' and he'll just look at me because it's late. Or we go to the movies all of a sudden. Some things are set in concrete. Other things are, let's just go do that. I'm a little bit of both."
Sara plans on studying business at Southwestern Michigan College. "I either want to help my dad at Ausra Equipment or I want to get an accounting degree. I'm in accounting classes now and it's fun."
Sara's platform was siblings with disabilities. Her brother Rob, 22, has Downs Syndrome.
"He's a big part of my life, so I knew that was what I wanted to talk about before I knew how I was going to talk about it," Sara said.
Sara said her brother "has taught me many things, such as patience, tolerance and empathy. You have to take time to listen and comprehend what he is trying to say. Dealing with his outbursts in public and in private can be hard … The hardest thing to tolerate is other people's actions toward my brother. He receives uncomfortable stares. People look at him as less of a person just because he's not the same as everyone else. As Charlie Weis, head coach of Notre Dame football and the father of a mentally impaired daughter was quoted, '…you don't have to play with (Hannah), just say hello.' The next time you're staring at someone with a disability, why don't you simply smile and say hi. It just may make their day."
Platform topics included: Brittany Bruens, being a role model; Michelle Stelmasiak, inner beauty; Kristin Krueger, time management; Katie Hewitt, adoption; Calie Daniels, Teen SERT; Brittney Hill, friendship; Katelynn Roach, self-confidence; Candis Schonekas, child abuse; and Molly Seurynck, community involvement.
"The hardest thing was cutting it down, timewise," Sara said. "It could only be a minute. Mine, when I first wrote it, was two minutes and 15 seconds. I cut that down to a minute and 30 seconds. Tracy (Galbreath, pageant director) had to help me. It ended up being like 54 seconds. It just comes out when you're up there."
Her first appearance as Miss Dowagiac will be at Saturday's Ice Time Festival.