7 Year Old Bahamian Earns Top Honors At Cancer Awareness Pageant in Georgia
Ms monica and Allie
ATLANTA, GEORGIA…At seven years old, Alejandra Stack has gone from honor roll gifted scholar and Student of the Month, to a ray of hope when it comes to cancer awareness. Born in the Bahamas, which has one of the highest rates of cancer per capita, the youngster asked her mother to enter a fundraiser to bring about cancer awareness after a relative and family friend both lost their battles.
The fundraiser turned out to be the In The Pink pageant in Atlanta, Georgia that has a little star quality attached. The pageant’s director Monica Daniels has been featured on TLC’s Toddlers & Tiaras, and has had stars such as Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson come through her pageants. With the proceeds of the pageant going towards the Susan G. Komen Foundation which seeks a cure for cancer among other things, Allie was allowed to enter the natural pageant.
“She was very curious about cancer because she walked in on me crying over two losses in September,” says Allie’s mother, Caribbean-born Atlanta-based media personality, Arthia Nixon. “Both women were single moms and living in a single parent household, she asked me what would happen if I died of cancer because at school, she learned that cancer can run in the family. I lost an uncle in his 20’s to prostate cancer and cousins and aunts have died or been diagnosed. I also lost a friend at 17 to osteogenicscarcoma, which is bone marrow cancer and something she actually knows about because one of her first coaches in gymnastics has a daughter who was diagnosed at Allie’s age, who is now in remission. Allie is preparing to compete as a gymnast and so she realized how hard it would be if she ended up being too sick to do something she loved or even lost a leg because she knows a someone who wanted gymnastics who is now a survivor and still just a kid.”
That little survivor, Tenia Cash ‘walked’ with Alejandra during the In The Pink Cancer Awareness Pageant in Atlanta, Georgia last month.
“I pasted a picture of Tenia on my bag to show that kids have cancer too,” explained Allie. “Then I wrote the names of all the people who donated funds and the people who asked me to write the names of people they knew who had cancer and the ages of those who died. It was a lot of fun to be in the pageant and it wasn’t about beauty it was about a cause.”
Allie was awarded In The Pink Wear outfit of choice winner for her category, named one of the little princesses and by raising over $500, she received a six foot trophy, crown and awards, recognizing her as an In The Pink cancer awareness Court Queen. The top honors of the day went to the two Ambassadors who raised the most money for the foundation.
