STUART \u2014 Kellie Lightbourn, the current reigning Mrs. Universe 2026, considers all the individuals enrolled in the Adult Day Training Program of the ARC of the Treasure Coast as her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here not as Mrs. America, but I was looking for a family and found one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by her 17-year-old twin children \u2013 daughter, Landyn, and son, Nicholas \u2013 Lightbourn signed autographs, chatted with and played games with the group during a recent visit to the Arc in June.<\/p>\n
She also was gifted with a bouquet of hand-crafted artificial flowers made especially for her by individuals in the training program.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not much of a flower person, because they die, but these, I\u2019m going to keep forever,\u201d Lightbourn said.<\/p>\n
She also was given a framed, glass-enclosed board with a poster, signed by individuals in the program.<\/p>\n
The message on the poster \u2013 \u201cThere is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others\u201d \u2013 which caused Lightbourn to tear up.<\/p>\n
And, the first time she approached the ARC in January, she immediately got that same \u201cbeautiful\u201d feeling, she said.<\/p>\n
Out of that, a partnership has grown which has inspired her to be an badly needed advocate for ARC, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be the voice for people who aren\u2019t seen,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to put across the message that everyone is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lightbourn, 51, a graduate of Boca Raton Community High School with family in Jupiter, first became Miss Virginia in 1999. She earned that title by shaving her head to make a wig for a friend who developed alopecia, an autoimmune disease which causes patchy hair loss on the scalp.<\/p>\n
In May, she was named Mrs. Universe \u2013 an annual international event open to married, divorced and widowed women between 18 and 55.<\/p>\n
She now makes her home in Stuart, having married her college sweetheart.She has two children.<\/p>\n
Her autistic son, Nicholas, a student at Community Christian Autism Program in Stuart, was diagnosed with Cornelia de Lange syndrome, a rare genetic disorder which affects growth and development. That inspired her to do what she could as an advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and entering pageants put her on that path, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was diagnosed very early on with that condition and nobody knew what to do,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was my first journey back into pageants, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lightbourn\u2019s advocacy work for the ARC is extremely valuable to the non-profit organization which offers education and employment training, Keith Muniz, president\/CEO said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very proud of her accomplishments,\u201d Muniz said. \u201cWhere for us, it means we have a voice and we have representation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe understands the challenges that they\u2019re trying to navigate through a system that\u2019s (filled) with red tape and funding issues, Muniz said. \u201cThere are critically underfunded programs in the ARC and she can help with that. We\u2019re so grateful and honored.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART \u2014 Kellie Lightbourn, the current reigning Mrs. Universe 2026, considers all the individuals enrolled in the Adult…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[326,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-315878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-martin","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}