Welcome to Madness Labs’ Blog! We are known for our ease of use apps and management systems, but what drives the success of our brand is heart. So our first post is not about one of our apps or customers, it goes out to our inspiring big sister, Katie, Senior Miss Amazing 2014!
Miss Amazing was founded by Jordan Somer, as a community service project for the National American Miss Pageant Program. Now the Miss Amazing Pageant is in it’s seventh year of the program and is only gaining steam. In 2010, Jordan had won the HALO award through TeenNick that had provided her the tools for the Miss Amazing Organization to be funded through a grant and work her own skills with a college scholarship. In November of 2007 Jordan held the first pageant in Omaha, Nebraska with a wonderful success. In addition to Nebraska many more states joined and with each state comes a director, Ellie Lorenzen, for Missouri. Ellie, 23, began doing such work because she knew the hardships of the disabled due to her older brother, her love of working with disabled girls, and love of pageantry. She competed and won Miss USA Pageant in 2013.
The mission of this organization is to give disabled women / young ladies around the globe a chance to showcase their enthusiasm and abilities to build confidence in a supportive environment. To grow with the experience, make new friends, and have a great time. To enter, you pay with five cans of food, which is given to food pantries and the homeless shelters.
How does the program work? Any female can join as long as they meet the requirement for disabled by law and Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Any male can join, as long as they meet that requirement, as a wonderful escort for the females; participants are escorted with “buddies” where there is not a male escort available. The program is broken up into seven different age groups: 5-9: Rising Star, 10-12: Preteen, 13-15: Jr. Teen, 16-19: Teen, 20-23: Jr. Miss, 23-27: Miss, 28-35: Sr. Miss, and 36+: Shooting Star. The girls are required to compete in three areas, introduction, evening wear and talent showcase. Participants are rewarded in each division by being selected as queen to represent her state for a year. All participants are rewarded by being crowned as princesses and receive a trophy for their hard work and bravery. Medals are awarded to the talent winners and runner-ups. The participants are judged on their ability to take opportunities and use them to their advantage for self-improvement provided in the program. The contestants are judged by five judges based on their performance in light of their disability symptoms and the information given.
So now that you know a little about the competition back to our shining star Katie, who had a total of seven different pieces in the program! Her first step consisted of an application where she gave some personal information, then came the real work of preparing for the talent, which Katie had prepared a two minute speech. All in all she knocked it out of the park and all while loking like a knock out too. After winning the title of “Senior Miss Amazing” for Missouri, she went on the trek to Nebraska, with her supportive parents, where she competed again and won the title of “Senior Miss Amazing” nationally!
Katie said that her favorite part about the entire experience was meeting new friends and being a part of something she truly believes in. She said,”I dreamt that both my grandfathers had told me I was going to win” and win she did. Now she says her ambition is to “go back and support other contestants because I believe in them like they believed in me”. We couldn’t be prouder of our big sis, who proves that anyone with enough courage and determination can be a real success. Madness Labs wants to bring that same courage and determination to every project we do in order to not only make apps, but apps with heart. Because, if Katie can overcome all obstacles and become Miss Amazing, then surely our team can help your app become just as amazing.
Thanks for reading our first article everyone and we look forward to posting a more routine post every “Madness Monday”!
For more information on the Miss Amazing Pageant, please visit www.missamazingpageant.com.
Click Here for Katie’s (Senior Miss Amazing 2014) Facebook