FHS 1975 alum also played a big role in area pageantry

By Robert Williams

Editor

Cindy Moore was adamant that she was not going to pursue a career in teaching. Nearly half a century later, she can look back at decades of instructing today’s nurses, saving lives by teaching CPR and also helping young girls get their academic starts by being a part of Miss Frazee Scholarship Program.

Moore, a 1975 graduate of Frazee-Vergas high school, found out quickly that opportunities after graduation were somewhat limited.

Rural female high school graduates were given few options for post-secondary pursuits in the mid-70’s, as Moore found out when discussing her future with her school counselor at the time.

“He just said to me, ‘You can be a nurse, a secretary or a teacher,’ and I was not going to be a teacher and I’m for sure not going to be a secretary, so I guess I’m going to be a nurse,” she said.

Fortunately, Moore had future-looking parents who pushed her to pursue her dreams.

“Honestly, I was toying with medicine or law and just was not encouraged, except by my parents,” she said. “Academically, I was not encouraged, as a girl, to do either of those.”

Moore began her nursing career after graduating from the Practical Nursing program at Fergus Falls Community College in 1976 and worked as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) for 23 years before returning to school.

Fergus Falls Community College, now known as M State, is still a popular place for those pursuing nursing to attend and according to Moore, much of the program she went through still exists today. 

“There wasn’t a registered nursing (RN) program there, just an LPN program and that’s what I started in,” she said. “Honestly, between the LPN program then and today it probably hasn’t changed that much. The curriculum is more up to date but the core roots and values of the programs are not that much changed.”

At the time, Moore was content working as an LPN.

“I didn’t have any desire to be an RN,” she said. “I loved what I did. I just had an amazing experience being an LPN.”

She began working at the nursing home in Perham before moving to the hospital, which was connected to the nursing home at the time. She met a traveling physician from Detroit Lakes and later transitioned to Lakes Medical Center in DL.

Moore was motivated to return to school by her desire, along with her husband Leland, to provide for her daughter and son’s college experiences. Moore became an RN and from then it was, “keep moving.”

She earned both her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education from Moorhead State University (MSU)and her Master’s at the then Tri-College of Concordia, MSU and North Dakota State University.

Moore briefly pursued a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), but her schedule was already busy enough.

“By the time I got there, I was teaching full-time and going to school full-time and had kids and I was, ‘Okay, I am done with this,’” she laughed.

Moore, the high school student who would never teach, taught full-time at M State Detroit Lakes until she retired in 2019 at the young age of 62, along with half a dozen of her fellow instructors.  

That did not last long and Moore returned for multiple reasons.

“I wasn’t ready to just sit home and do nothing,” she said. “I have to be busy and I don’t regret the decision I made. By the time I finished, we had just finished a national accreditation for our nursing program and we had worked many years on that accreditation. After you’ve been somewhere for a long time you end up on every committee that there is and finally I just literally was exhausted. By the spring of 2020 I knew this was not for me. I actually went back to teaching and now I teach part of the time in Detroit Lakes and part of the time in Wadena.

Her return was in the middle of the pandemic when teaching went full-time online.

“It was fun; I loved it,” she said. “It was a challenge. You had to become creative.”

Once she decides to retire from college for the second time, Moore already has more things planned and that is to continue teaching.

“I had a plan and I’m still using that plan,” she said.

Her plan is to continue working at Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) teaching NCLEX prep to nursing students both online and at other colleges.

The National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) is a standardized test that you must pass to become a registered nurse (RN) or licensed practical nurse (PN) in the United States.

“I’m probably as busy as I’ve ever been,” she said.

The irony of holding down two teaching jobs is not lost on someone who had no plan to ever become a teacher.

“That is the one thing I’ve always thought about,” Moore said. “I was dead set on not going to be a teacher. I love every single minute of it.”

Moore grew up in Indiana and did not move to Frazee until her sophomore year of high school. She was already familiar with the area from visiting her grandparents’ lake home on East Silent Lake near Dent each summer.

She moved with her mother and the school and the town had a big enough impact on her that she continues to live here to this day.

“No desire to live somewhere else,” she said. 

Moore cited the effect of teachers she had here, namely Kay Jacobs, Marlys Jacobson, and Parker Williams, of providing the motivation and reason she has had such a successful teaching career.

“I had some great teachers,” she said. “Nursing has been really important to me, but the thing that really moves me forward everyday is family and that is the most important thing to me.”

Another area people may know Moore from is her extensive involvement in area pageants.

She was heavily involved in the Miss America Pageant System, including running the Becker County Fair pageants and Miss Northwest in Detroit Lakes, as well as contributing to the Polar Fest and Miss Frazee Scholarship programs.

“For a long time, I’ve been friends with Jay (Estenson) and Alice (Furey) and we did a lot of things together,” she said.

Moore has also been a pageant judge and an auditor.

She was one of two women elected to the Becker County Fair Board and elected to start a pageant at the fair in the late 80’s. She created Miss Becker County Fair and Junior Miss Becker County Fair pageants from the ground up, even employing a soft-side trailer from Daggett Trucking as part of her stage setups.

“I loved every single minute of it,” she said. “People jumped on board and really made it happen. We went from eight girls the first year to up to 20 at both pageants.”

Moore eventually transferred control of the fair pageants to Tammy Bigger and transitioned into running Miss Northwest and Polar Fest. During her time, two Miss Northwest winners became Miss Minnesotas, allowing Moore trips to the Miss America pageant.

She has now downsized her pageant duties to being the auditor of the Frazee pageants.

“It’s a great opportunity for kids who need scholarship money,” she said.