Miss America's Madeline Collins, Miss West Va. Slammed Pres. Trump In Onstage Interview
Miss West Virginia Madeline Collins slammed President Donald Trump on Friday, Sept. 7 during an interview portion of the Miss America pageant.
The 23-year-old was asked on Friday night about what she feels is the most serious issue facing the U.S.A.
"Donald Trump is the biggest issue facing our country today," she replied amid applause from the audience.
"Unfortunately he has caused a lot of divide in our country, and until we can trust him and the choices that he makes for our country, we cannot become united."
Miss America 2018 will be crowned on Sunday, Sept. 9, in a nationally televised finale from Atlantic City.
It airs on ABC at 9 p.m. ET
https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/miss-america-2019-contestant-madeline-collins-slams-donald-trump/
Madeline Collins Miss West Virginia
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https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/madeline-collins-crowned-miss-west-virginia/article_792d50ea-8b52-52e0-9eaa-03b948dda9a3.html
Sabrina Harrison (L) and Tamia Hardy (R) crown the 2018 Miss West Virginia, Madeline Collins, June 2018.
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Madeline Collins with her parents, Mary and Steve Collins.
- Miss West Virginia Returns To Her Hometown For July 4th Celebration, Bluefield Telegraph, July 5, 2018. -
PRINCETON — Madeline Collins of Princeton had never entered a beauty pageant before winning the title of Miss Tri-State when she was a student at West Virginia University last year. That win, followed by a 2nd runner-up finish in the Miss West Virginia competition, prompted her to run for Miss Elkins Area for this year, and she won, returning to the state pageant once again.
Last Saturday night, she was crowned with the title at The Metropolitan Theatre in Morgantown. On Wednesday, she was at the Mercer County 4th celebration in her hometown for her first official public appearance as the reigning Miss West Virginia.
The 2013 Princeton High School graduate graduated from WVU in May and will be heading to Atlantic City in September to compete in the Miss America competition. “I am excited,” she said, adding that she had no idea if she would like competing in the first place, but did.
“I am a dancer,” she said. “I have danced my entire life. I was on the Princeton High School dance team as well as the teams at Marshall University and WVU.” Collins initially went to Marshall and then transferred to WVU, where she majored in child development and public relations.
Studying at Princeton Dance Studio under Princeton teacher Janice Gunnoe, Collins, daughter of Steve and Mary Collins, said one of her dreams was to dance professionally and she has accomplished that. “I am a parade dancer at Walt Disney World,” she said of the part-time job she has had for a year. “It’s a seasonal job and I love it.”
But after her first beauty pageant, she had another dream, and it was fulfilled last weekend with the title after being judged for lifestyle, an interview, evening wear and talent, which was a dance performance.
“My platform (during her one-year reign) is mental health,” she said, which is in line with her long-term career goal of working as a children’s life specialist in a hospital setting. Collins has a special empathy for children in hospitals.
“I spent a lot of my childhood in a hospital,” she said. “I was born with a congenital heart defect.” She has already had three open heart surgeries and will have more. “I am okay after the surgery, for a period of time, and then maybe in two years I need another one,” she said, adding that the surgeries work at least temporarily and well enough she can continue a very busy and physically demanding lifestyle.
She will continue dancing at Disney World, she said, but “I will have to work it in around my schedule now.” Her education is not over either. “After my reign as Miss West Virginia I will attend Columbia University in New York City for my master’s degree in social work,” she said. In the meantime, she will spread the word about the importance of mental health to “all corners of West Virginia.”
Getting ready for Atlantic City is also on her agenda. “I am so excited to have the opportunity to represent the State of West Virginia,” she said. Her family, including brother Isaac and sister Camille, are all very supportive and looking forward to the coming year. “They are so excited,” she said. “We are still overwhelmed in the best sort of way. It is incredible.”
http://www.bdtonline.com/news/miss-west-virginia-returns-to-her-hometown-for-july-th/article_ddb4cac8-7fed-11e8-be94-0b64703d5d71.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Go Mountaineer Madeline!
By Madeline Collins. Miss West Virginia: *The Paradox of My CHD* Aug. 28, 2018
https://www.achaheart.org/blog/2018/miss-west-virginia-the-paradox-of-my-chd/
For as long as I can remember, I have felt that my heart condition was a paradox in my life, an inconvenient reality that did not match my body or spirit. A dancer since the age of two, I have spent most of my life on a stage asking for attention, yet wanting the scars of my surgeries never to be noticed. I wanted to stand out during every performance while always hoping that no one noticed when I fatigued quicker than my fellow dancers, or that my coloring was fading to pale by the end of a piece. When I was told by my primary cardiologist that I needed to be safe in choosing activities and hobbies, I proceeded to join the track team in middle school, always hiding the monitor I was forced to wear as a compromise made with my very frustrated cardiologist.
Following my third and most recent open heart surgery, I experienced a conversion of sorts. It was the first time that I had witnessed a decline in my physical condition, with my activity tolerance reaching a miserable low. The final weeks preparing for this surgery presented another new experience for me. While I was scared of the impending pain and anxious for the weeks of school absences, moreover, I was facing my own mortality for the first time—the prospect that I could actually die as a result of this nuisance in my life named tetralogy of Fallot.
Six months after my surgery and recovery, I returned to the stage in one of the most challenging and rewarding dances performances of my life. That experience served as an internalized personal statement for me, both physically and emotionally. This “condition” that I had viewed as a contradiction in my life, seemingly an assault on everything I believed that I was, I now welcomed and embraced as one of the most defining truths of myself. It is one of my most powerful strengths, rather than a symbol of weakness that I had tried to hide for so long.
When I made the decision to enter my first Miss America competition two years ago, I knew that the scars along my chest would be on full display and that there has never been a Miss America with such a degree of visible imperfections. While I believe that most judges would not knowingly hold this against me, I also know that my body is sometimes not pleasant to view; I represent chronic illness, I represent less than perfection, I represent mortality.
I won the first competition I entered and a few months later competed in Miss West Virginia 2017, placing second runner up. Nine months later I competed and won the Miss Elkins 2018 competition, giving me yet another run at the Miss West Virginia title. In June 2018 I was named Miss West Virginia 2018 wearing a white gown featuring a very deeply plunging neckline, fully displaying, if not framing, my sternotomy scars.
My relationship with my heart condition has evolved from being a hidden sign of weakness to a proud representation of my resilience and strength. I love nothing more than meeting young children with congenital heart defects, comparing our diagnoses, surgical histories, physical limitations, and our matching “zippers” while always demonstrating my own pride and lack of shame in mine. And as I compete at the Miss America competition in September, I will confidently and proudly represent them and our lives of ongoing paradox.
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~ Madeline Collins was diagnosed with tetralogy of Fallot at birth. She graduated from West Virginia University summa cum laude with a degree in Child Development and Family Studies. She is employed as a performer and dancer with the Walt Disney World Corporation in Orlando, Florida. Madeline is a very active volunteer with the Children's Miracle Network and Give Kids the World Village located in Orlando. In Fall 2019, Madeline will begin graduate school at Columbia University in New York City, after her year of service at Miss West Virginia 2018 is over, and after competing for the title of Miss America 2019 in September 2018.
smart and lovely young woman with excellent plans and a supportive, loving family.
Wishing her all the best in life.
What she said on stage in those brief seconds was gutsy.
