On Nov. 28, Great Oak High School hosted the second annual Miss Spectacular pageant, a celebration of young women with physical and mental disabilities.

Alexis Kutscher, a senior at Great Oak, instituted Disability Awareness Week as an annual campus event. It is meant to inform the student body of a different disability each day of the school week, even advocating for students to experience a day in the life of someone who lives with a disability. For example, this year, selected students spent the day in wheelchairs.

Kutscher wanted not only to inform the student body, but to celebrate the young women at high schools in the TVUSD area who live with disabilities. According to Kutscher a "moment to feel beautiful inside and out" and "a night dedicated to them and only them" was the perfect way to do it.

Last year was the first annual disability pageant, Miss Amazing. Its success is what prompted her Advertisement

[ The Tutoring Center ] to enlist the help of the WSB, Great Oak’s student government, and the Great Oak HUGS club to aid in its expansion to students outside of her high school.

The students from Great Oak, Temecula Valley, and Chaparral wore gowns and had their hair and makeup done by the local Paul Mitchell School. They participated in introductions, talent portions, group dances with the Great Oak Varsity Dance Team, and during intermission six foundations gave presentations regarding disability awareness.

Kutscher partnered the Miss Spectacular event with the City of Temecula to expand the outreach of the pageant. The mayor opened up the ceremony, and newsletters were sent out inviting the entire city to attend.

Kutscher hopes that above all, the girls had "a night to be pampered and treated like royalty, because to [her] these girls are absolutely amazing, inside and out, and they deserve the most amazing and wonderful night to be treated like a princess."