A Black mom from Chicago will embark on a nationwide tour after being topped winner of the 2023 Ms. Wheelchair USA pageant.
Fanchon “Fannie” Pierce, who lives within the Windy Metropolis, took dwelling the highest prize and the Individuals’s Selection Award final month within the annual pageant devoted to celebration, empowerment and advocacy for girls with disabilities, as first reported by Individuals.
“Believing in your self goes a good distance. You don’t want a crowd. You don’t want somebody tapping in your shoulder telling you, ‘You are able to do it.’ You’ll be able to inform your self that,” Pierce stated following her win, the journal reported.
Pierce, 35, was shot seven instances in 2009, damaging her spinal twine and finally requiring her to start utilizing a wheelchair, per the report.
Now a mom of three, a member of six nationwide honor societies and proprietor of the nonprofit peer mentoring group We Will Wheel, Pierce continues to make use of her platform to encourage others to thrive regardless of life’s surprising challenges.
The Ms. Wheelchair USA pageant hosts competitions on the state, regional and nationwide ranges for adults who use a wheelchair. Members are invited to have fun what makes them distinctive in a sequence of speeches and interviews, culminating in a 10-day ceremony in July, per the occasion web site.
“Ms. Wheelchair USA acknowledges that every one girls, regardless of any incapacity, might be glamorous, and may exhibit self-confidence in private, skilled, and public life,” the group stated.
After being named Ms. Wheelchair Illinois in March, Pierce toured varied faculties, conferences and dwelling communities throughout the state to share her story and encourage self-advocacy.
Within the week main as much as the ultimate pageant, held July twenty eighth and twenty ninth in Ohio, Pierce and different finalists participated in day by day instructional periods and group actions. That included portray, visiting the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame and Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, in addition to singing at a karaoke celebration, per a Fb submit.
Because the winner of Ms. Wheelchair USA, Pierce will tour throughout the nation in a sequence of visitor speeches and appearances. She moreover earned a administration contract, in response to the occasion web site.
In a interview with native Illinois outlet WSIL Information 3, Pierce stated the Ms. Wheelchair USA pageant “offers us all an opportunity to have the ability to be heard. To be not muted in a world stuffed with others. To have the ability to be celebrated.”
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