2nd Runner Up! by Jennifer Rechsteiner July 29, 2003

2 Runner Up... July 29, 2003. I guess you heard by now, I placed 2nd-runner up in the Ms. Wheelchair America contest last week in Des Moines, Iowa.  It was a long and stressful week. The best part was meeting other cool people in wheelchairs.  I thought I was the only one!  :)   I will definitely be keeping up with Ms Florida, Ms Wisconsin, and Ms Arkansas.  We got along great.  The best part is we can all visit each other since everyone has a wheelchair accessible home!

We arrived in Iowa on Tuesday and checked-in.  Each state had a half a table to set up their display.  The display was to represent your state and your accomplishments.  Tuesday night was spent setting those up and meeting the other girls.  One of the girls was one who had been shot and left paralyzed by one of those Columbine High School shootings 6 years ago.  These girls all had some rough stories to tell and huge barriers to overcome.  Each night we had a dinner banquet.  It was neat to roll in a room and each table had NO chairs around it so we could all just roll right under and the walking people had to find chairs!  It was nice to not be the alien in the room.

Wednesday was just a fun day.  We all went on a tour of the Botanical Gardens and had lunch there.  On our way out, a reporter interviewed Ms Iowa, Ms Kentucky, Ms Florida, and me.  So we did have a nice article in the Des Moines Register on Thursday.  The paper had a beautiful picture of the back of my head as I was talking to Ms. Florida!  Wednesday night the dinner theme was 50's night.  So thanks to Caitlin (my 7 year old), I wore her poodle skirt and tied my hair back in a scarf.  It was fun.  They played 50's music and we had meat loaf and mash potatoes.  Did everyone in the 50's weigh 200 pounds or what?  That was some heavy food!

Thursday the stress began.  We all had to dress professionally and had scheduled workshops during the day.  While you were in your workshop you would be pulled out, one by one, to have your interview with the 5 judges. The judging was stressful.  The 5 judges were seated in a horseshoe shape and you had to sit in the middle to be grilled.  My favorite part (ha-ha) was at the one minute left mark, the judge coordinator knocked on the door to warn you.  Of course everyone would jump 50 feet from being startled.

Anyway I survived.  Thursday night was country night so of course we had barbecued chicken; the first of several chicken dinners.  After dinner we each drew a state name out of a hat.  I drew Ms Wisconsin.  So she gave me the state gift she brought.  It was perfect for me!  She made two gift baskets; one had 7 huge cheese wedges of various varieties (no Vicki you can't have any!), and the other had cranberries, syrup, and jelly beans, etc. Yummy foods!  When someone drew our state we had to introduce ourselves and tell them why they would want to visit our state.  After that, they had open-mic singing (karaoke), so Courtney (Ms Florida) signed us up to sing "I'm too sexy".  So Courtney and I sang that together.  It was really funny.  I have never seen so many wheelchair people dance, and look good too. 

Friday was the most stressful day of all.  We had workshops again all day and were pulled out individually for judging.  We had ANOTHER chicken dinner, and then we had to do our 2 and a half minute speech.  Thanks to Len (my step-dad) coaching, I had a great speech, which I belted out without passing out on stage.  After I gave my speech I was so-o-o-o-o-o relieved because that was the part I dreaded the most.

Saturday morning we had rehearsal for the crowning event.  They had arranged for professional make-up and hair people  we could sign up for if we wanted to.  It was also the ONLY day we had 3 hours of free time.  So I got to finally leave the hotel.  I soon realized I was not missing much being stuck in the hotel all week.  There is nothing to do in Iowa.  We walked (rolled) for seemingly 10 miles in 107-degree heat to finally find a restaurant....a spaghetti house...oh, wow!  I was kind of looking for a Japanese Steak House or some good Thai food.  I did suddenly appreciate Maryland and all it has to offer!  I gagged down a limited amount of food so as to not bloat my stomach so I could fit in my tight black dress that night!  So I had my make-up done professionally, but did my own hair.  (Judy- You know how I am about my hair!)  Well, we all had to line up by state at 5:45pm, outside the door.  Senator Harkin arrived to do a speech.  Everyone freaked out and was so exited he came.  I am happy he came, too; but me a Ms Washington DC were like... "Oh! Another congressman... OK.  Whatever."  They called us up by state and we had to introduce ourselves.  They gave each of us a rose, so of course they handed me one, which had snapped in half so it rolled off my lap! 

Anyway, to make a long story short, they called forward the five finalists.  I was surprised and happy to be called!  We had to pick two questions out of the bowl.  Mine were: "If you were placed somewhere and you did not know where you were,  what would you do?"  (I was thinking what the heck kind of question was that?)  My other question was: "How would you organize a protest against a major transportation system?"   Then after everyone was done the judges went away.  The winner was Ms Oklahoma who was an excellent public speaker, Ms Iowa was 1 first runner up- she was so compassionate, and I was 2- runner up.

So that is it!

Jennifer