Pageant Platform Magazine May June 2019 issue pageant platform magazine may june | Page 7

Zoe Bigham
Morgan Border
Miss Rhythm & Blues
Outstanding Teen
Miss
Hawkeye
State Junior Miss
America’s US Miss
My platform is rais-
ing awareness for breast cancer. I founded my own
fundraiser in sixth grade as a 4-H citizenship project.
The fundraiser is called State A-Breast and is done by
swimming the breast stroke for breast cancer. The first
year my goal was $5,000 and I exceeded that goal
with over $8,000. Now over the past five years of doing
this fundraiser it has raised over $50,000 splitting the
funds evenly with the Trinity Cancer Center and the
American Caner Society, for both research and every-
day needs. I wanted to start a fundraiser that was way
different then anything else done before and that’s
why I decided to combine swimming while raising
money. I came up with the idea and so many people
started supporting me right away when I told them
and I knew I had to keep it going.
I am so passionate about this because cancer is a
disease that almost everyone has been affected by. I
genuinely love volunteering and combing it with a
love of swimming went perfectly together. When I
started Stat A-Breast I didn’t know anyone personally
with this disease, but as I kept it going more people
started getting breast cancer. One person in particular
was one of my older sisters. She found a lump on her
breast and went through many biopsies and scans to
see if it was cancerous. After a horrible scare we found
out it was binine rumor. After going through this scare
with my family and gladly finding out it wasn’t cancer-
ous, it made me realize for all the families that do go
through this disease that it can get way worse.
My platform is “Zoes
Closet”. Through my
platform I am able to
donate coats and
other necessities to
underprivileged chil-
dren in my community. To date, I have donated over
200 coats to an elementary school , 108 toothbrushes,
as well as donated things to the nursery at the local
hospital and approximately 70 blankets and towels to
a doggy day care.
My platform is very special to me because when I was
in the fifth grade, a boy that I rode the bus with lost
everything to a house fire. It touched me. I gathered all
I could for my classmate! I asked other classmates to
help me !! Together , we helped our friend rebuild
what all he had lost. With the help of my family, com-
munity, and the Miss America Organization I am now
able to this on a larger scale.