Miss Lake Eola USA & Teen USA Results

By Grant Gravitt, Jr | Miss FL USA

The beginning of our Miss Florida USA Pageant August Mini-Season saw The Road To Hollywood make its first stop of the year in Orange County as we present a “neighborhood” title with the Miss Lake Eola USA & Teen USA Pageants. Held at the Downtown Orlando Crowne Plaza in the Thornton Park District before a lively and boisterous audience the afternoon featured six Miss Teen USA and three Miss USA delegates competing for the two tiaras and chance to represent the region at both Miss Florida USA and Miss Florida Teen USA. 

Read more: http://www.missfloridausa.com/Prelims/PRELIMS-lake-eola.htm

A Pageant That Inspires: Ms. Wheelchair America 2015

By: Phil Shuman

Jenny Lynn Adams is a bubbly redhead full of energy. She has a motivational speaking business that she says is wildly successful and that has taken her all across the country.  She prefers to work with ''what God gave her'', which is a torso, a head, and virtually no limbs. She was bullied as a kid growing up in Washington State, tried prosthetics, didn't like them, and is perfectly comfortable with who she is and how she is. "Even though I have a disability and people with disabilities are looked at for those disabilities, we also have abilities. And as we are included in mainstream society, we are able to take those abilities and talents out into the world." A year ago, Adams entered the Ms. Wheelchair competition, won the Washington crown, and was then named Ms. Wheelchair USA at the annual pageant in Houston. I caught up with her at the pageant which will name Ms. Wheelchair USA for 2015, held at the lovely Long Beach Hilton. It was quite a sight - 28 women, with varying disabilities, zooming around the halls and meeting rooms in their motorized chairs. In addition to Adams, one of the most impressive women is L.A.'s own Theresa DeVera. Now 38, she was 20 when, as a student at Loyola Marymount, she suffered a severe asthma attack that put her into cardiac arrest and then a coma. She wasn't expected to recover. Her family was encouraged to pull the plug and donate her organs. They didn't and she came out of the coma after three months. Then DeVera taught herself to speak again. She still can't walk, but has gone on to earn both bachelors and masters degrees. She certainly means it when she says, "I feel I have accomplished more disabled than I have able-bodied. It taught me never to take a minute of life for granted."  She doesn't and neither should we. 

This year's pageant is organized by singer, actress, and advocate Jennifer Kumiyama; she's been in a wheelchair since she was 2. Though this is called a pageant, there's no swimsuit or talent competition. Participants are graded on their communications skills and their ability to advocate for the disabled community. They also attend workshops on public speaking, advocating for the disabled, and keeping physically fit through exercise such as wheelchair dancing, taught by Chelsie Hill, founder of Walk and Roll. The mission of the Ms. Wheelchair USA is “to provide an opportunity of achievement for women who happen to be wheelchair users to successfully educate and advocate for the more than 54 million Americans living with disabilities.” Obviously to get there in the first place, they're all winners. And they're not interested in sympathy, just inclusion.

This is the 43^rd year of competition and Ms. Wheelchair America 2015 will be named on Saturday.  

Dad Waltzes With Disabled Daughter to Win Pageants

ABC US News | ABC Sports News

By GILLIAN MOHNEY via GOOD MORNING AMERICA

Mike Carey, of Dallas, Georgia, never imagined that he would be participating in pageants. But as dancing partner to his 12-year-old daughter McKenzie, Carey has spent a good amount of time on stage. McKenzie has mitochondrial disease, which affects the 12-year-old’s ability to speak and move and has left her in a wheelchair. The disease results from the failure of mitochondria, which are responsible for 90 percent of the body’s energy. As the mitochondria fail, so do the cells. According to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, mitochondrial disease usually damages cells in heart, liver and skeletal muscles and respiratory systems, as well as the brain.

McKenzie’s mother, Tammy Carey, started putting her daughter into pageants at age 5 as a way to bond with her daughter and to help McKenzie meet new friends. “We’re trying to figure out ways to help our daughter and help her enjoy life, and pageants give her an opportunity to be like other children,” said Tammy Carey, who noted that McKenzie can’t speak but understands those around her. However, McKenzie’s condition confined her to a wheelchair, creating a problems for the competition. Since Tammy Carey refused to enter her daughter only in pageants for special needs children, she had to figure out a plan for McKenzie when she was needed to perform onstage. Eventually during a particularly hectic pageant day, Mike Carey had an idea.

“You leave it up to me,” Mick Carey told his wife before taking the stage with his daughter. “I wheeled her up on the stage and I did a wheelie across the stage and I picked her up [to dance]. ... I made up a dance in my head. The crowd went crazy.” The pair has been performing together in pageants ever since and Mike Carey estimates he’s planned out seven dances for his daughter. McKenzie has won about 20 pageants, according to her mom. At a recent pageant, Carey’s son taped the pair’s latest performance and put it online to raise awareness about the disease as the family raises money online to fund medical treatments for McKenzie. In just two days the video has already gotten more than 220,000 views with people as far as New Zealand chiming in. “I’m like ‘Holy cow where did this come from?’” said Mike Carey.

The pair aren’t stopping now. They’re already planning to attend a national pageant in Nebraska. McKenzie’s mom is working on the outfits and make-up and her dad is already choreographing his next dance. “If I get one person [inspired], it made the whole song and whole thing worthwhile,” said Carey. “It’s like an unspoken message. This dance is alike an unspoken testimony and shows bond and love between a father and daughter.”