GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Anything but a beauty pageant— that’s how organizers describe a statewide competition that took place Saturday in Grand Rapids.
Mary Free Bed hosted and sponsored Ms. Wheelchair Michigan, an advocacy-based competition that helps women grow in leadership, advocacy and education.
“It was never about beauty. Beauty was never judged. It was about finding a spokeswoman for people for disabilities and using the power of the sash and the crown to get attention. And, quite often, the sash and the crown will open doors that wouldn’t have been opened without that," Ms. Wheelchair Michigan State Coordinator Shelly Loose explained.
Eligibility requirements include:
- Must use a wheelchair or scooter for community mobility due to a disability
- Must be 21 years old or older
- Must be a United States citizen
- Must live in the state of Michigan
Those who have participated in the Ms. Wheelchair Michigan competition before and did not win are able to enter and compete again.
Ms. Wheelchair Michigan 2023, Jamie Junior, has been hard at work for the last year. since earning her crown.
Junior works at Disability Network of Wayne County, and her advocacy platform was financial empowerment and stability for people with disabilities, focusing on housing and transportation.
“Ms. Wheelchair is really more of a roadmap. She sets a standard for how the world sees people with disabilities,” Junior explained. “So, I’m really careful and really conscious of the image that I display because I want people to understand that individuals with disabilities— I don’t like saying that we’re the same as everybody else because we’re not— we have a beautiful uniqueness to us that makes the world better and sometimes, that’s overlooked because of the packages that we come in.”
But really, the work started long before the competition.
“It was really an experience for me in that it took me out of my comfort zone. Just by nature, I’m an advocate. I have cerebral palsy, so my whole life has been a journey of teaching people how to treat me, which made me a natural advocate, I believe,” Junior said.
Saturday's competition ended with the crowning of Ms. Wheelchair Michigan 2024— Shanta Favors.
“I’m extremely outspoken. I’m determined. When I see an issue, and I feel that I can physically do something about it. When you become disabled, we tend to lose some stuff. I physically lost my ability to walk, physically lost my ability to do certain things, but I have a voice. I can still speak,” Favors said.
Her platform includes advocating for care, and not letting people with disabilities go without proper care because of their insurance status.
“I want to literally bridge the gap between caregivers and patients. I want to advocate for higher pay. I want to equal the level field when it comes down to providing care, regardless of insurance status. Someone on a [state choice] program shouldn’t be limited by their care. I’m on workers comp. If we have the same level of care needs, we should receive that level of care," Favors explained.
“What we hope it will do is it will allow them to be seen and to be noticed, not to be known just for your disability, but to be known because you have a voice and you have a message to tell,” Loose added. “We want others to understand what some of our challenges are that we face so that maybe we can break some of those barriers that exist, you know, some of the architectural barriers, of course, but those attitudinal barriers I think are what really still holds us, us as in people with disabilities, back.”
The newly crowned Ms. Wheelchair Michigan will go on to compete on the national stage at Ms. Wheelchair America next August.
