Sheets earns Mrs. Idaho crown

She's a mother of six, a farmer, the guest relations manager at Silverwood.

She's a 4-H leader, a daughter, a sister and a wife.

And now, Mrs. Kootenai County Michele Sheets is Mrs. Idaho 2017.

"I am honored, I am humbled," Sheets said during a phone interview Tuesday. "The caliber of women who participate in the Mrs. Idaho Pageant are all amazing, outstanding women of Idaho. I'm honored to represent the state."

Sheets was crowned Mrs. Idaho at the 2016 Mrs. Idaho America Pageant in Boise on Saturday. The competition featured 23 beautiful and accomplished married women from across Idaho.

"I was shocked when I won," she said. "At first I didn't think they said my name, and the first runner-up said, 'You won!' I could hear my kids screaming in the audience. It was just a surprise and a moment that you think will never happen to you."

Sheets, 40, is in her third year competing in the pageant. Mrs. Idaho America program co-director Finke said Sheets placed in the top five her first year and the top 10 last year, and this year the competition was "fairly fierce."

This is the first time in about 15 years of the pageant that a North Idaho gal captured the crown, Finke said.

"The judges were really impressed with her friendliness and thought she would relate very well to all of the married women of Idaho," Finke said of Sheets. "She is very passionate about clean eating and telling people that food comes from a farm, not a can or a drive-through. She's a very well-rounded individual."

Sheets won an expense-paid trip to the national competition and a prize package worth more than $10,000. In August, she will compete against 50 other state winners in the Mrs. America Pageant at the Westgate Resort in Las Vegas.

"I'm excited. Nervous, but excited," Sheets said. "I just hope I represent the best that Idaho has to offer and I hope to inspire other women to look for the best in themselves."

Sheets, her husband, Jeff, and their children live on a small farm in Athol with horses, goats, pigs, chickens and turkeys. Along with having their kids, Sheets was a surrogate for her brother and his wife and then proceeded to lose more than 70 pounds in the past few years. She deeply cares about clean, healthy eating and teaching others about the importance of fresh, farm-raised food.

"Sometimes you forget in your day-to-day that little things you do are important to everyone's lives, and everything matters to someone," she said. "I want to carry my message of farm to table to a national level, promote Idaho agriculture and get back to the basics of eating good, fresh food."

Also from North Idaho, Mrs. Coeur d'Alene Stormie Woolsey placed in the top 10 of the competition.

"We try to concentrate on helping each woman find her individual uniqueness and be able to appreciate that about herself," Finke said. "We all have certain gifts, and I think that's what we really try to hone in on so that everyone, not just the winner, goes home with something."