Pageant queens aren’t new to the city of Vicksburg, and a recently crowned pageant winner has roots here.

Ms. Wheelchair Mississippi 2016 is Lisa Ann Redd.

Redd was crowned Saturday, March 12 at Madison Central High School in Madison. The pageant consisted of a formal wear competition, a two-minute platform speech and an interview question. Redd’s platform is the lack of accessibility on school playgrounds.

“My platform focus will be trying to get a piece of equipment that children in wheelchairs can use on the playground instead of just watching their peers,” Redd said.

Requirements to enter the pageant were for contestants to be 18 or older and a fulltime wheelchair user. Redd has been in a wheelchair since she was five years old because of a tumor that was found on her lower spine.

“I went though treatment at St. Jude’s [Children’s Research Hospital] and have been cancer free ever since,” Redd said.

As the reigning queen, Redd will have two planned speaking engagements and she will also move on to the national competition, Ms. Wheelchair America, in August in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“I’m going to start raising money so I can go,” Redd said. “I have to raise my own funds to get there.”

She set up an account on gofundme.com called Ms. Wheelchair Nationals at gofundme.com/2suc4pzs.

Redd said she was completely out of her element doing the pageant.

“I was trying to try something new,” Redd said.

As a young girl she always thought in the back of her mind about being a pageant contestant, but she never thought she’d seriously enter a competition. However, she recently saw an article about the Ms. Wheelchair Mississippi Pageant, which she didn’t know existed, and she was encouraged to register.

“A friend finally just convinced me just to do it, to get experience and to get out of my comfort zone,” Redd said. “I didn’t think I’d actually win. I wasn’t actually planning on that part. I was just thinking it’d be a great experience.”

She was nervous the night of the pageant, but she worked through her fear and found the courage to go on stage. She is still surprised that she did it and that she was crowned the winner.

“I’ve very amazed that I even got up there. It’s like an out of body experience at the moment,” Redd said.

Redd is a graduate of Warren Central High School and used to attend Immanuel Baptist Church. Her parents are Ann and Herbert Redd.

She is currently a preschool special education teacher at Mendenhall Elementary School.