Kathe Ratka, a resident of South Milwaukee has been named Mrs. Wisconsin America's Touch of Class 2005.  She received her title on February 27, 2005 and will be competing for the title of Mrs. America's Touch of Class 2006, January 9th-14th, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Kathe and her husband Joe have been residents of South Milwaukee for 11 years and they have 3 children, Andrew, Ben, and Jeremy. 

 

Kathe is the PTO President at Rawson and also is involved in many volunteer organizations.  She is the Secretary for the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Parkinson's Association, the founding member of Asperger's for Significant Others meeting held at the Autism Society every first Wednesday of each month.  She is also part of the Executive Board for Ausome Milwaukee, which is a social group for families of child/children grades 6-12 who suffer from Asperger's Syndrome.  She is involved with her church, Nativity of the Lord Parish in Cudahy, where she is a reader and a 5th Grade Sunday School Teacher.  In Kathe's spare time she owns her own business, as she is an Independent Mary Kay Beauty Consultant.

 

Kathe's platform for the pageant is "Teaching Our Children Values".  She feels that children along with adults have lost the sight of true values and what values should mean.  She would like to help children see that the values in life are not the material things, but how we treat each other, how we help our community, and how being part of our community we learn to help ourselves.  Kathe is teaching her own children about these values and how to value other people by volunteering, participating in walks for charity events, and helping those in need. 

 

Kathe is a caregiver to her mother, and was a caregiver to her father until he passed away 2 years ago, losing his fight to Parkinson's Disease.  By being a caregiver to her parents she hopes to teach her children the importance of taking care of those in your family.  In that, when they are adults and a family member is in need, they are more than willing to be there for them.

 

As you can see Kathe is a true caregiver to all.  So we would like to take this opportunity to wish her well at National's and possibly bring home the National crown.