Disney princesses bring magic to wheelchair pageant participants
Tinker Bell, Randee Sorrensen, 31, of Pleasant View, is shown escorting 18-month-old Aliza Pedersen of Logan in the princess pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Aliza suffers from a condition that kept her brain from forming. She has a short life expectancy, said pageant organizers.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, October 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Friday, October 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Emylie Parker, 8, of Pleasant view, enjoys a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Friday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Emylie Parker, 8, of Pleasant View enjoys a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, October 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, October 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princesses gather around a contestant at the annual princess pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, October 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday. Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, October 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
Princess Pageant contestants enjoy a night of recognition at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
KAYSVILLE — For the girls at the Ms. Wheelchair Princess Pageant, getting the chance to share a talent with a little help from a Disney princess is pure magic.
The best example of that magic at this year’s event, held Oct. 14, was Hope Rowley, who fought through the pain while recovering from spinal surgery to get ready for her performance.
The contest was an event Hope wasn’t willing to miss, her mother, Anna-Marie Rowley, said.
“It’s a huge self-esteem boost,” Rowley said. “She loves to perform her two minute presentations.”
Hope, 14, of West Haven, suffers from middle interhemispheric variant of holoprosencephaly and cerebral palsy. She was born missing most of her brain, her mother said.
Just a few months before the pageant, she had an extensive surgery where most of her vertebrae were fused.
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BRYAN BUTTERFIELD/Special to the Standard-Examiner
Hope Rowley, 14, of West Haven, is surrounded by Disney princesses as she is crowned “Miss Thoughtful” at the annual Princess Pageant Saturday Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
In the six years Hope has competed in the pageant, she has danced, sang and cheered and this year she gave a slideshow presentation.
In her physical therapy sessions following her surgery, Rowley said her daughter talked so much about the pageant that her therapist drove from Saratoga Springs to attend the event.
Her supporters were pleased to discover that Hope was named “Miss Thoughtful” at the pageant.
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“This is a cute award for her,” Rowley said. “She remembers everyone’s names. She has told everyone since the pageant that she was Little Miss Thoughtful.”
Her thoughtful nature even extended to helping raise funds for the pageant.
While she was in pain as she recovered from surgery, Hope assisted fellow competitor Story Turner last month in raising more than $620 to help fund the pageant. The funds nearly doubled when $500 was matched by Modern Woodmen, organizers said.
Several of the contestants helped Story work at a lemonade stand and cotton candy sale at Macey’s Grocery Store in South Ogden to earn the funds.
Event organizer Meg Johnson, of Marriott-Slaterville, surprised Hope this year by giving her the newest Disney princess, Moana. In the past, Hope has competed with the frog princess, Tiana, as her helper.
• RELATED: Northern Utah mother, child meet disability’s challenges with special bond
Standing in as Tinker Bell was Randee Sorensen, 31, of Pleasant View.
Sorensen said she has experienced much happiness through her participation with the contestants for several years.
“They just know that you are the real princess,” she said. “Their sparkle is so great.”
A mother of four, Sorensen said she approaches her own parenting with added appreciation after she sees the sacrifices of parents of children with disabilities.
“I love the girls and how cute and sweet they are,” Sorensen said. “Some of them are non-verbal, but it’s so much fun.”
Sorensen was the princess for Aliza Pedersen of Logan. The 18-month-old suffers from hydranencephaly, a rare condition where the brain is not correctly formed, and other diagnoses that her adoptive parents say will severely limit her life expectancy.
Johnson said she greatly admires Aliza’s parents and the sacrifices they make to keep her happy and comfortable.
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BRYAN BUTTERFIELD/Special to the Standard-Examiner
Pageant Director Meg Johnson speaks during the princess pageant Friday, Oct.14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
The pageant came about as a result of Johnson’s efforts to inspire others through her efforts to face her own disability.
Johnson was paralyzed in 2004 when she fell 45 feet from a mountain top.
Discovering that Utah did not have a Ms. Wheelchair pageant in 2005, Johnson appointed herself as the state winner and competed at the national pageant.
She has sponsored the Ms. Wheelchair Utah pageant ever since and began hosting the princess version for children a short time later.
• RELATED: Miss Amazing Pageant crowns Utah’s Brianna Heim as preteen queen
Brianna Heim, 12, of Hill Air Force Base, has competed in the pageant for about six years.
Despite the fact that she was the winner of the 2015 Miss Amazing National Preteen in Los Angeles, her mother said competing in the wheelchair princess pageant still remains a motivating force in Brianna’s life.
Brianna suffers from glutaric acidemia type I, a disorder that affects her speech and motor skills. Her mother describes her disease as a rare metabolic disorder where her body lacks enzymes to break down proteins.
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BRYAN BUTTERFIELD/Special to the Standard-Examiner
Brianna Heim, 12, of Hill Air Force Base, enjoys competing in the princess pageant Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Kaysville. Presentations including singing, cooking, and slideshows followed by the Little Wheelzz Princess Dance allowed young wheelchair-bound girls to motivate and inspire others with their unique messages.
“It’s really nice for her to be around her peers that are also wheelchair users,” Wendy Heim said. “It’s a very encouraging place. Meg Johnson is an incredible role model, an excellent example.”
A true princess, Heim said Brianna loves her crowns. “Every time she gets an new title, she loves to see what it is,” Heim said.
Being around Johnson sends the message that “just because you use a wheelchair doesn’t mean you cant’ live,” Heim said. “It shows them that you can do anything.”
Johnson said she started the pageant because she didn’t see many opportunities for girls in wheelchairs besides sports.
“It’s fun to have a place to feel beautiful — to get dressed up and recognize that beauty comes in all kinds of abilites,” Johnson said.
The mother of Story Turner, 12, said the pageant has given her daughter conficence and pride in who she is and what she can do.
“It is so nice for the girls to be surrounded by other girls who just like them instead of always being the one who is different from everyone else,” said Audra Turner of Ogden.
“There isn’t a dry eye in the place after the talent portion concludes,” Turner said. “It’s humbling to see how such small things to most of us can be so difficult for these girls, and yet, they persevere and get to feel a sense of accomplishment.”
“Those who compete in the pageant have tenacious spirits,” she said. “They are all such beautiful girls and they come dressed fancy and everyone dotes over them. I love the pageant because disability is part of these girls’ lives and it is so fitting to celebrate them for exactly who they are.”
You may reach reporter JaNae Francis at jfrancis@standard.net or 801-625-4228. Follow her on Twitter at @JaNaeFrancisSE or like her on Facebook at facebook.com/SEJaNaeFrancis.
