Ms. Wheelchair Kansas visits AbleHawks
Pageant winner encourages students to “Use Your Power!”
Lorraine Cannistra, Miss Wheelchair Kansas 2007, visited AbleHawks members Tuesday night. She spread her message, “Use Your Power!” to members.
By Dylan Sands
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
Feel the fear and do it anyway. Or as Lorraine Cannistra, Ms. Wheelchair Kansas, jokingly put it: “My thing is feeling like crap and doing it anyway.” Cannistra visited the University of Kansas Tuesday night to meet the AbleHawks and talk about her platform: “Use Your Power!”
AbleHawks is a student organization that seeks to raise awareness on disability issues. Chiaki Gonda, secretary of AbleHawks, said the group invited Cannistra to speak to give students a chance to meet someone from the disability rights movement. She said the AbleHawks worked to provide opportunities for students to join together in promoting disability as a multicultural and diversity issue.
Cannistra, a 38-year-old Lawrence resident, was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Kansas last March. She recently competed with 26 other women in the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant in Maryland. Although she did not win, she said the experience was very rewarding.
“It was a really, really cool week,” she said. “I came away feeling completely bonded with the other women that were there.”
Cannistra said she spent a good deal of time in Maryland discussing handicap access rights with the other contestants. Part of being Ms. Wheelchair Kansas means Cannistra must spread her platform message, which is “Use Your Power!”
Photo by Sarah Leonard
Miss Wheelchair Kansas, Lorraine Cannistra, Lawrence, visits with AbleHawks last night in the Burge Union. Cannistra spoke about her experience with Miss Wheelchair America and the empowerment it brought her. "To keep your power you must do what you need to even when you don't feel like it," Cannistra said.
She said “Use Your Power!” was all about encouraging people with disabilities to use the power they had within rather than letting others take their power away or belittle them.
“I don’t like whining about how people treat us like second-class citizens,” she said. “Hey, I’m Ms. Wheelchair Kansas and I want to spread the word.”
According to the Ms. Wheelchair Kansas Web site, Cannistra has led several seminars dealing with accessibility issues at hospitals and shelters. She is also an Independent Living Skills trainer at Independence, Inc. in Lawrence.
Although she remained optimistic, Cannistra admitted her life was often challenging. She has had cerebral palsy since birth and has been confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. She recently had to put her service dog of 8 years to sleep, and she has had difficulty finding effective caregivers to help her with her busy schedule. She even stated that she had second thoughts about speaking at the AbleHawks meeting.
“But part of using my power is coming and speaking anyway,” she said. “I have to do everything I need to do in spite of how I feel.”
Cannistra said part of her message had to do with helping others realize they need help.
“If you want a house with a red door that’s fine,” she said. “But if that door doesn’t have a ramp it’s not fine. Until you know what you need, you don’t know specifically what you’re asking for.”
Cannistra said she hoped she could bring more attention to disability issues at the Universtiy, where she works as an English tutor for the football team.
“I like telling guys that are 6’6” and 300 pounds that they have to do their homework,” she said with a laugh. “I tell the coaching staff if they’re not studying and they run their butts off.”
— Edited by Luke Morris
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