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Kadance Fredericksen, the most recent winner of the Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA pageant, died after a traffic collision in Florida on Monday.
A pageant queen in Florida tragically lost her life after a car crash Monday.
Kadance Fredericksen, the winner of the Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA 2024 pageant and a delegate in Miss Florida Teen USA 2024, died following the collision, her family confirmed to WKRG News 5. She was 18.
Fredericksen's sedan reportedly collided head-on with a tractor-trailer at around 1:30 p.m. in Santa Rosa County, Florida, on February 17. The 56-year-old man who was driving the tractor-trailer sustained minor injuries, WKRG reported, citing a Florida Highway Patrol crash report.
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View StoryFredericksen's family, who spoke to WKRG after her passing, said the 18-year-old had a bright future ahead of her, and had been accepted into nine universities with ambitions to be a veterinarian. Calling her "absolutely perfect," they added that the Baker High School student had "the whole world at the palm of her hands."
The Miss Florida USA organization also shared condolences for Fredericksen, calling her a "true light in this world."
"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 Tuesday. "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."
When she wasn't on the pageant circuit, Frederickison was busy giving back via her own nonprofit organization, "Kada's Promise," which she established in 2017.
The nonprofit collects and donates comfort objects to children in troubling living situations, based on her own experience growing up in an "abusive" home.
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View Story"The only thing that made me feel safe was a single teddy bear that I received as a gift," Frederickson 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."
"Kada’s Promise is probably my greatest accomplishment to date. It is my life's story," she added on the nonprofit's website.
