Disabled Girl Takes Her Shot at the Title

When Tammy Miner received an invitation to participate in the Miss Californian American Coed Pageant, she didn’t let her physical condition spoil a dream.

The 11-year-old San Bernardino resident, who uses a motorized wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, applied for the pageant and joined hundreds of other teen-age and preteen girls in the contest Saturday at the Airport Marriott in Los Angeles.

She wore a pink satin dress that her godmother made for the occasion.

At a dance rehearsal before the finale, two men lifted her on stage in her wheelchair, and she joined the practice by moving her arms the way the others did. While waiting for an interview with the judges, she muttered, “I can’t believe I’m doing this. I get nervous very easily.”

Tammy learned about the pageant by mail. Her name appeared on a list of teen-agers used by pageant sponsors to find contestants.

“She was really excited about it,” her mother, Martha, recalled. “I said, ‘Calm down.’ We’ll have to call them Monday. I called them and they said, ‘Sure, the wheelchair will be no problem.’ She really liked the idea. She would have pushed the car here if necessary.”

Because of her physical condition, Tammy was unable to compete in the talent and speech competition on Friday.

Her daughter realized that realistically she had “little chance of winning” the competition among more than 200 preteen participants, Miner said. Nevertheless, she said, Tammy was resolved to take part.

“She’s an 11-year-old, and she determined to do whatever every 11-year-old does,” Miner said. “She’s involved in Girl Scouts, and she goes to summer camp and everything like that. She starts middle school in September.”

Tammy said she often tries things that others think she can’t do. “I do it to prove I can, and sometimes to experiment.” And how do her experiments turn out? She laughed: “Mostly good.”

Saturday’s experiment was mostly good, too. Tammy placed in the top 20 finalists and was voted Miss Congeniality-Miss Personality by the other girls.

“It was very heartwarming,” said Jack Cione, spokesman for the sponsoring American Coeds Pageants Inc. of Pensacola, Fla. “We were very concerned about putting someone like that in a pageant like this, not knowing how the girls would react. But they just really took to her.”

The co-winners of the pageant--Casey Dickerson of Folsom and Jill Tacey of San Diego--will compete in the national finals in Honolulu in late August.