Crowned February 25, 2012, Miss Los Angeles County Outstanding Teen 2012, Danamarie McNicholl-Carter, besides being an honor student, a golfer and a triple jump competitor for the Academy of Our Lady of Peace she has been extremely busy working on her platform. McNicholl-Carter has spent the last few years raising money and awareness for the San Diego Adaptive Sports Foundation.

SDASF is an organization that improves the quality of life for children, adults and wounded veterans with physical disabilities through recreation and sports. Volunteering as a wheelchair sports camp counselor she says, this experience changed her life. She helped transfer the little athletes from their wheelchairs into sailboats, and kayaks and different athletic chairs needed for participation in sports such as basketball, volleyball, rugby, tennis and soccer.

“I absolutely loved getting to know the young athletes, and seeing them over come obstacles while enjoying every minute of their amazing camp experience,” Danamarie says.

This organization is not only of importance to Danamarie for its obvious charitable reasons, but for a more personal reason as well. As a child, Danamarie was born with hip dysplasia and very well could have grown up to need a wheelchair herself if her ball and socket joint had not healed correctly. Her work with these children who have overcome so many obstacles has lead her to live her life by Winston Churchill’s words, “The pessimist sees the difficulties in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

She is excited to say through her efforts she sent fifteen children to wheelchair sports camp this past summer on Mission Bay in San Diego. An estimated 6.1 million people in America use a wheel chair. Her plan is to continue to reach out to those people and encourage them to take advantage of these wonderful adaptive sports programs. This is the only camp of its kind in California. Danamarie says her goal is to “continue to use my title to increase donations and to increase more sports camp locations for disabled children, adults and veterans across the United States.”

McNicholl-Carter caught the judge’s attention last summer when she placed fourth-runner up in the 2011 Miss California Outstanding Teen Pageant, she plans to run again this June to give the State crown another shot.

Source and photo: Danamarie McNicholl-Carter