From where she’s sitting, anything is possible
Ms. Wheelchair Gulf Coast USA sets sights on national title, aspires to design fashion — and makes horseback-riding nonprofit proud
For the past year, 19year-old Yessenia Luna’s plate has been as full as a queen’s. She’s designed clothes for a fashion show at Cypress Ranch High School, from which she’s about to graduate. She’s volunteered and ridden with SIRE, a therapeutic horseback-riding group. Then she was named homecoming queen, which she calls “a surprise.”
That was the first time a tiara was placed on her shiny black curls. This spring, with a nudge from teachers and friends, Luna entered the Ms. Wheelchair Gulf Coast USA pageant and won another crown. In July, she will travel to Ohio, where 12 contestants will vie for the Ms. Wheelchair USA title.
For someone who was born dead, she sure has a full life.
Luna’s will to succeed began with a will to survive. On April 2, 1999, Rosalba Luna was in labor in Chicago with the youngest of her four children with husband Luis. The baby wasn’t breathing at delivery; doctors resuscitated little Yessenia, but the damage was done. She had cerebral palsy.
“Obviously, nobody knows,” Luis recalls, but one doctor bluntly said, “‘You do know she’ll never be able to walk, sit on her own or talk, don’t you?’ Her mom was crying.”
The family rallied, and Luna got her first power chair at age 3. The snowy, icy winters made the Windy City hard for her to navigate, so the Lunas relocated to Greater Houston.
Luna has faced grim predictions with determination and an ever-present bright smile. Her speech is severely affected; for anything requiring more than a few words, she uses a Tobii Dynavox. She moves her eyes over the device’s computerscreen keyboard with
predictive text to create words about life and a passion for fashion.
Wearing black with crisp white piping, she says “it was a little bit hard” growing up. When she was younger, she’d be ignored when fellow students passed her in the halls at school. But she wouldn’t change anything: “I have a lot of faith in God.”
Luna will enroll this fall at the Art Institute of Houston to pursue a bachelor of fine arts in fashion design. She rattles off her favorite fashion houses: Dolce & Gabbana, Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta top the list for their colors and fabrics. Her favorite color is purple.
How long has she wanted to be a fashion designer? “Always.”
To get there, Luna has to exercise to improve her muscle movement, posture and balance. Enter the animals.
Several years ago, at a therapist’s suggestion, Luna’s parents got her a miniature poodle. Petting Precious, who wears a studded pink collar, helped Luna relax her perpetually clenched hands. Soon after, the 6-year-old climbed on a horse at SIRE.
“It has helped me gain more balance,” she says of the therapy in which the horse’s gait engages core muscles, mimicking the motor input of walking. “And it has given me the opportunity to get to know horses.”
Riding instructor Paige McDonough has taught Luna for nearly a year. She notes Luna’s improved control of her horse, mastery of steering through an obstacle course, and halting and backing up on command, as well as better posture, riding with correct shoulder-hip-heel alignment.
P.J. Murray, manager of SIRE’s Hockley site, says Luna has impressed the group since she was little.
“I have yet to meet anyone with such an indomitable spirit,” Murray says. “She strives to excel in all areas of her life, whether it be educational, volunteerism or extracurricular activities. She is a caring, funloving individual who will, no doubt, make a name for herself.”
At 16, Luna began volunteering with the nonprofit.
“She helps us by cleaning saddles, bridles, helmets and … going through the first-aid kit and making sure everything is in place,” says Michelle Skawronski, who coordinates 100 active volunteers in performing 3,000 hours a semester. “She is very dependable and will do anything you ask of her.”
“Her courage, confidence and determination are evident in all aspects of her life,” McDonough says. “SIRE is another outlet for Yessenia to demonstrate those characteristics. … She doesn’t need SIRE to be great because she already is. SIRE is just the cherry on top! And we are lucky to know Yessenia.”
Much as she loves SIRE, fashion is her true calling. Last year, Luna designed and modeled a satiny purple gown with a detachable longer skirt, along with dressy outfits for girlfriends she recruited for the school fashion show.
Her mother, who helps translate Luna’s ideas onto fabric, chuckles at her daughter’s sneakiness.
“She told me, ‘I want to do boys pants.’ I said, ‘No, those are very hard,’ ” Rosalba recalls. “Then later she tells me she needs fabric for a pillow. So we go get it, and then she says, ‘I need a zipper.’ I’m thinking, ‘A footlong zipper, for the pillow?’ ‘No, short.’ Hmm … .”
And that’s how a male friend came to model Luna’s design for silky white pants in the show. Her classwork and social recruitment efforts were successful. She got an A.
That charm and resourcefulness put her in the running to be crowned Ms. Wheelchair USA on July 21 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The program promotes glamour, self-confidence and community service in celebrating the achievements of women with disabilities.
After interviews, judges consider school, work and/or church involvement; recommendation letters; and a contestant’s motivation for wanting to become Ms. Wheelchair USA, among other factors, according to CEO and founder Lowery D. Lockard. Though scores among applicants at the regional level remain confidential, Lockard calls Luna “an amazing young woman.”
Luna’s GoFundMe campaign to cover the entry fee, travel and wardrobe expenses reflects her platform: a desire to show that anyone, regardless of physical ability, can positively impact society.
“With the title of Ms. Wheelchair USA, I will help people who have special needs and have low income to give them the special equipment that will assist them in their daily lives.”
In her usual sunny manner, she sees her communication device as an asset for the competition: “Not every contestant has a computer to speak. … There are no limitations for us. People with disabilities can do just about anything.”
Somebody get that woman a bolt of fabric and a zipper.