Miss Deaf DC
Jul 17th, 2008 by Admin
Message from Erin Land
Please allow me to introduce myself… my name is Erin Land and I’m State Director of Ambassadors (SDA) for Miss Deaf District of Columbia. That’s right, SDA is formerly as known as State Pageant Director.
As some of you might know, the word “pageant” kind of sends wrong image of what Miss Deaf America is all about or sends away the donators and the motivated girls. The term: pageant, however, in dictionary describes as “one consisting of a succession of participants or events, most people view the term as outer beauty. You don’t need to be tall, thin or beautiful to participate. Anyone with a leadership quality can join!
For a while now, National Association of the Deaf (NAD) have been debating how to attract the young women to join because it is also the beginning point of journey as an ambassador, not just the poise of outer beauty alone. As we all know, our inner beauty is what makes us beautiful on the outside.
Ambassadorship is as dictionary describes: a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one state to another as its representative. In another word, it means a person with leadership skills in them and is able to be a diplomat to ones organization.
Now, NAD have altered the title from Miss Deaf America Pageant to Miss Deaf America Ambassadorship Program. It’s very true as you know, the winner of the Miss Deaf America title travels all over the nation, giving presentation, being the pulse for NAD, empowering the youth, educating the Americans about anything that needed to be educated and you name it. All of the above fits into one term: ambassador, or in another definition, a leader.
Now, about our Miss Deaf District of Columbia program, our Miss Gallaudet winner automatically becomes the Miss Deaf District of Columbia and this winner, during her reign, will travel to the location where NAD conference is taken place to compete for the national title: Miss Deaf America.
Our Miss Deaf District of Columbia 2007-2009 is our beloved Shanna Grossinger of California. She went to New Orleans, Louisiana for NAD Conference 2008, and I am proud to announce that she ranked the Top 6 finalists. She performed “Heckedy Peg” in the Artistic Expression theme and gave a platform presentation about ASL as our language.
Shanna did fabulous representing the District of Columbia and Gallaudet community as the audience have said she is a very intellectual person who truly will go far in life.
The 2008 pageant, top 6 were: Miss Deaf District of Columbia, Miss Deaf Maryland, Miss Deaf Missouri, Miss Deaf Nebraska, Miss Deaf New York and Miss Deaf Texas. JoAnn Benfield, Miss Deaf Missouri was the 2nd runner up. Katherine Murch, Miss Deaf Texas was the 1st runner up. The winner of the 2008-2010 Miss Deaf America title was a lifelong dream of Michelle Lapides of Maryland. Congratulations to all 22 contestants and you all did great!!! Of course, extended congratulations to our Miss Deaf DC, Shanna!!!