“Never Forgotten — Remembering Our Heroes.” That is the platform of Miss Wisconsin’s Teen 2025 Natalie Popp, who visited Kenosha recently to share her veteran-focused mission with the members of the weekly American Heroes Cafe gathering at Festival Foods.
A native of Fitchburg and a senior at Lakeside Lutheran High School in Lake Mills, Popp began competing in the Miss America organization as a freshman. One of the first steps of that process, she said, is developing a platform.
“After some thinking, I realized it was so clear – I wanted to support our active military and our veterans,” Popp said. “My family had always been super instrumental in teaching me about our veterans and taking me to Badger Honor Flights, and always encouraging me to go up to a veteran whenever I saw them in public.”
Other facets of Popp’s life also led her to her focus on veterans.
She saw the experiences of her best friend, whose father was an active-duty member of the military and, as such, moved six times as she was growing up.
Both of Popp’s great-grandfathers served in World War II and passed away before she was able to have meaningful conversations with them about their service.
As a high school freshman, Popp created a community service initiative, Teens for Heroes, that conducts quarterly activities to thank and support active-duty service members and veterans. These efforts have included donation drives for a VA hospital and other veterans’ organizations.
Then, Popp said, her mission came into greater focus when she met Dr. Lew Harned, a now-101-year-old World War II veteran from Madison. Harned, she said, shared with her his fear of being forgotten.
“From the moment I met him, I knew I needed to do something to not only share his story but also encourage more people to hear the stories of our veterans,” Popp said.
That led Popp to write a children’s book, “Lew for the Red, White, and Blue,” a picture book about Harned’s life and his successful quest, at age 99, to do 100 things he had never done before in the runup to his 100th birthday. (“Lew’s List” included a trip to Kenosha, where he spent a morning serving as a bailiff in Judge David Wilk’s courtroom.)
As Miss Wisconsin’s Teen, Popp has traveled the state, selling hundreds of copies of the book and speaking at school assemblies and veterans’ organizations.
Popp has also worked to create a wall of honors for veterans who graduated from her high school, and she serves on the boards of two organizations that serve veterans: Operation Not Alone and Fisher House Wisconsin.
Kenosha County Executive played a role in bringing Popp to the Heroes Café in Kenosha. Popp’s mother, Sarah Popp, was a staff member in Kerkman’s state Capitol office when Kerkman served in the Assembly.
“I’m so proud of Natalie and what she’s been able to accomplish for veterans at such a young age,” Kerkman said. “She certainly has a very bright future.”
More information about Popp and the Miss Wisconsin organization is available at https://www.misswisconsin.org/teen-2025/
