Miss Teen USA Pageant Queen Dead at 18 After Florida Car Crash
Originally appeared on E! Online
A Florida community is mourning the loss of an accomplished young woman.
Kadance Fredericksen, the winner of Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA 2024 pageant and a delegate in Miss Florida Teen USA 2024, died following a traffic collision in Florida, her family confirmed to WKRG. She was 18.
The teenager's sedan reportedly collided head-on with a tractor-trailer at around 1:30 p.m. in Santa Rosa County, Fla., on Feb. 17. The 56-year-old man who drove the opposite vehicle sustained minor injuries, WKRG News 5 reported, citing a Florida Highway Patrol crash report.
E! News has reached out to local authorities regarding Kadance's death but has not yet heard back.
Following news of her passing, Kadance's family informed WKRG that she had been accepted into nine universities and had ambitions to be a veterinarian. They added that she was 'absolutely perfect,' and that the Baker High School student had 'the whole world at the palm of her hands.'
The Miss Florida USA also shared condolences for the sudden loss of the high school student.
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'It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that we share the passing of one of our beloved delegates, Kadance Fredericksen,' the organization wrote on Instagram Feb. 18. 'Our pageant community has lost a beautiful soul—one who was a true light in this world. She was ambitious, driven, kind, and a leader among her pageant sisters.'
In tandem with her pageant career, Kadance had a passion for giving back. In 2017, she established her own nonprofit organization, 'Kada's Promise,' where she collected and donated comfort objects to children in troubling living situations, based on her own experience growing up in an 'abusive' home.
'The only thing that made me feel safe was a single teddy bear that I received as a gift,' Kada wrote in her organization's mission statement. 'I carried him with me from house to house, couch to couch and clutched him tightly in the scariest times. It is from these memories that Kada's Promise was born.'
Kadance added on her nonprofit's website, 'Kada's Promise is probably my greatest accomplishment to date. It is my life's story.'
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