Pageant Contestant Advocates For Suicide Prevention

When Tiffany Ramm chose to represent Minnetonka in the Miss Minnesota International pageant, she knew immediately what cause to support.

Each contestant in the pageant must pick a platform, and Ramm picked one near to her heart: suicide prevention.

Two years ago, she lost a friend to suicide. Shortly before her friend passed away, she asked Ramm to promise to compete in another pageant. After mourning the loss, Ramm decided to honor that promise.

As a social worker with West Suburban Teen Clinic, Ramm is passionate about social issues and spends her time advocating and serving others, but no cause is quite as important to her as suicide awareness and prevention.

Ramm, 25, volunteers every week at Crisis Connection, a Richfield agency serving the entire state, which answers calls for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. She answers calls from people looking for resources and, occasionally, from someone suicidal and needing immediate attention.

“It took a little while to get comfortable with working with people who are suicidal, having lost a friend to suicide,” Ramm said. “But I actually think I’m in a really good mental state, because I really took the time to grieve.”

Ramm also conducts presentations and community outreach on suicide awareness. By the time she competes in the pageant on March 10-11 in St. Cloud, she will have logged over 210 hours to the cause.

Ramm, who grew up participating in pageants, submitted an application about her platform and explained why she would make a good contestant for the Miss Minnesota International pageant. A native of Moniticello, MN, and current Minnetonka resident, Ramm is a full-time graduate student at the University of Minnesota's School of Social Work.

The pageant includes four areas of competition: interview, evening wear, fun fashion wear and fitness wear. Ramm, traditionally a plus-sized model, has lost 35 pounds and wants to lose 15 more before the pageant.

“The fitness portion of the pageant has really been a good reason and target goal date to get in shape,” she said.