New Ms. Wheelchair wears crown with grace

HYANNIS -- She had been dancing since she was 2. Eight years later when the doctors told Autumn Grant her leg and arm muscles were deteriorating, she didn't want to accept it. She continued going to her tap and jazz recitals.

As the moves became more difficult, she changed her routines. It became harder to climb stairs, and she kept falling. Still, she wanted to do things on her own.

''I didn't really want to stand out," she said. ''I wanted to keep myself as normal as possible. If people didn't know, I didn't want them to know."

Her secret is out now.

Yesterday, in Baldwin Hall at the Federated Church of Hyannis, Grant, 31, who was diagnosed with limb girdle muscular dystrophy at age 10, was crowned with a sparkling tiara and draped in a pink and white sash in the state's first Ms. Wheelchair Massachusetts pageant. More than 30 people, mostly friends and family, came to watch Grant of Attleboro and Lori Frankian, 39, who lives in the Fenway area, vie for the title.

The previous title holder, Laurel Labdon, who was appointed Ms. Wheelchair Massachusetts by executives of the national program, hosted the pageant. During the four-hour event, judges took them each into an adjacent room to ask questions about why she deserved the title. Each spent two minutes sharing her personal story with the audience.

''It's more about ability than disability," said Labdon, 35, who was paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident when she was 19. ''It just so happens that the contestants use wheelchairs."

Ms. Wheelchair America, a national nonprofit program that began in 1972, is not a beauty pageant. It was created to highlight the accomplishments of women with disabilities and to increase public awareness.

Labdon has held her position for the past 16 months, meeting with legislators and advocacy groups and touring the state as a voice for people with disabilities. Frankian has done outreach for homeless communities, volunteers for the Department of Social Services in Boston, and has had more than 20 years' experience in the entertainment industry.

For Grant, the pageant is a long way from her childhood.

For years, she avoided using a cane or wheelchair or anything that would make her appear different. She also knew that if she used a wheelchair, she would lose a lot of her remaining strength, she said.

''She even had a scooter, but she would never use it," said her father, Stanley Grant, 62. ''It was going to be her way or no way."

After high school, she went to Northeastern to study environmental geology, but the school was too big and too hard to get around, she said. She transferred to Providence College and studied humanities. At 22, she got a wheelchair.

Grant now works at Stonehill College in the Center for Academic Achievement, helping students with financial aid, deciding majors, and time management.

''It was a growing-up thing," she said. ''I came to the point where I just wanted to be myself. It's something special about me."

Yesterday afternoon during the onstage interviews, Grant toggled her joystick, rolled her motorized wheelchair to the front of the room, and told the panel of three judges that if she could have any superpower she would fly. It's freedom, she said.

Her boyfriend, Kenny Bergeron, 37, met Grant after he answered her ad in the local paper looking for a personal assistant. He knows she values her freedom.

''She will try to do everything on her own. I follow her lead," he said. ''She's a dancer."

Russell Nichols can be reached at rnichols@globe.com.