In 2006, amid all the hoopla of the dethroning of Miss America Tara Conner, University of West Georgia junior Kathleen Rice started wondering if there was a pageant for her. At 23, Rice, who was born with spina bifida, has used a wheelchair all her life.

Rice has never let the wheelchair stop her from doing what she wanted, though. So, she started searching online and found the Ms. Wheelchair Georgia pageant.

“I competed in April of this year, and I won,” Rice said.

She competed again in South Dakota for the Ms. Wheelchair America crown in August, but did not win. She’s not unhappy, though. She knew she would have had a hard time fulfilling all her duties as Ms. Wheelchair America because of her schedule as a student and because she doesn’t drive.

“It was just an honor to do it,” Rice said. “The other girls were amazing.”

As Ms. Wheelchair Georgia, she schedules all her own appearances. This past week, Rice appeared at the Medtrade Show in Atlanta. In November, she will appear at the Abilities Expo in the Cobb Galleria. She also speaks at schools, telling people, disabled or not, that they can do anything they want.

“Do what you want and love to do, no matter what,” Rice said. “Just try it. If it doesn’t work out, it didn’t work out. No big deal.”

That is a credo she follows in her own life. She has tried everything she wanted from swimming to dance to being a cheerleader at Heritage High School in Conyers. It helped that she had supportive parents, but really it was her personality that made her so adventurous, she said.

“Just by nature I was driven and I was going to do what I wanted to do,” Rice said. “I wanted to just get out there and live, not dwell in what I couldn’t do.”

She knows disabled people aren’t the only ones who talk themselves out of trying. Anybody can tell themselves they can’t, then have to live with regret, and that’s something she never wanted to do.

When she was born, her parents knew her life would be difficult but were determined that she would have all the opportunities available to her, said her father, James Rice.

“We were just determined to do the very best we could for her and leave it up to God,” he said.

They tried to give her the same opportunities as her younger brother, Josh, and made adjustments when needed. For instance, she couldn’t ride a bike, so they got her an electric scooter. They supported her in her activities because they wanted her to feel confident in trying things.

“Some of the things we were afraid for her,” James Rice said. “We never could say no to her because we didn’t want to discourage her.”

She led the way, telling them what she wanted to try, and she wanted to try a lot. So, when she told her family she wanted to be in the Ms. Wheelchair pageant, they were a little surprised but figured it was just her latest adventure.

The Ms. Wheelchair pageant is not a beauty pageant. The judges asked Rice what her accomplishments were and how she would advocate for the disabled as Ms. Wheelchair.

“It was a lot of judging and that was it,” Rice said. “It was based on the achievements and what we told them.”

The judges also asked some light-hearted questions.

“The lighthearted question I got was, I think, what cartoon character would I like to be,” Rice said. “I said, ‘Ariel because I love to swim.’”

The women are judged on their accomplishments, and during the pageant, that is what they showcased. And Rice has accumulated a few in her life. Starting in elementary school, she was active. She ran and won as class vice president and then president. She also did a morning news show at the school. In high school, she worked on the school newspaper and was a cheerleader. She was a teen mentor and still mentors at Shepherd Spinal Center SPARX, Special Program About Real Experiences, a camp for children with spina bifida. She has been a member of Full Radius Dance and Not Merely Players, an acting group in Atlanta. Since she has been at UWG, she has been involved with the V-day movement, and was in the Vagina Monologues last year and will be again this year.

She also sits in as a guest DJ on 104.7 Fish, a Christian radio station, whenever she can. It combines her two loves, her faith and her passion for media.

“My faith is the most important thing in my life,” Rice said.

When she’s here in Carrollton, she attends Cross Pointe Church. When she’s home in Conyers, she attends First Baptist Church in Snellville where she works with disabled students.

She’s a mass communication major at UWG and freelances for The West Georgian newspaper. She also has done some work for New Mobility magazine, a publication that caters to active wheelchair users. Eventually, Rice would like to work for a newspaper, magazine or television show for the disabled.

James Rice knows his daughter will be able to accomplish anything she sets her mind to doing.

“She’s had periods, just like any handicapped person, where she felt I guess different from other children, but those were isolated incidents, and she overcame that,” her father said. “She’s an inspiration to us.”