Madison Marsh

So constantly your wheels are always turning to see in what ways does the question that's being asked apply to some facet of your life and your passion so that people come away remembering your answer.

Well, I couldn't sing or dance and you have to have a talent to compete in Miss America. So I thought to give a speech about something, but I knew you can't just give any normal speech. Like if I were to talk to you about what my solo flight was actually like, people would probably be a little bit bored because it would be monotonous.

And so the way that you take a speech and you elevate that is you really have to turn it into a performance. It's no longer just a speech that you might be giving like a keynote speech at a conference. It has to truly be a performance to put people where you are, bring them in and keep them listening and not looking away for that entire minute and a half. So I ended up meeting up

I had coaches that actually were previous actors or performers and kind of having them help me take something of me just talking about what it was like at the age of 16 to fly and turning it into something that was going to impact people or make them think twice. And I think what's been really cool is

Even though my talent might've been a little bit controversial to people, it's been really awesome hearing from these little girls now saying, oh, well, I kind of want to join the military or maybe I want to get into flying. I didn't really see that as a path for myself, but after watching that performance, it seems so fun. Like I really want to try it out.

And I think that's pretty cool because now if my little minute and a half could have inspired some young girls to go into aviation, then it was worth it.

I feel like the people that have come before me have made us extremely privileged. I can't even grasp what it was like for the women who were the first ones to go to the Air Force Academy. I will never know what that's like. And I was extremely privileged to just always assume that I had the opportunity to go and apply and attend the school, and I didn't have to fight for anything.

So thanks to them and all the ones that had come before that to give us that, because it's still impacting us in ways that we honestly take for granted all of the time. We're the first women that joined the military. I take for granted being able to get up every day and just put my uniform on. And so now, I mean, those people were true groundbreakers, stereotype breakers.

They opened up doors for so many women to follow them. But I think what I've realized about this past year is maybe I don't necessarily see myself. I see them not even close to what they accomplished for young women, but at the same time, You don't have to be a big first or have a fancy title to change perceptions of people and to open up doors for other people.

Because even though, I mean, after I won, I thought, oh, maybe all it's going to be is just a flashy news headline. But it ended up turning into me being able to give hope to some other young women to show them that you don't have to sacrifice your personality or your passions in life to put on the uniform. And I think anybody can do that.

You don't have to be Miss America or have some other big title to make a difference in other people's lives. Just showing up and doing what you love can open up so many doors for other people. And I think that is just as impactful as being the first. Anybody has the ability to do that.

That's great.

Absolutely. My mom passed away in 2018, whenever she was only 41 from pancreatic cancer. And about two weeks afterwards, my family was trying to figure out how we were going to deal with this loss and how we could turn it into something positive for other people. And that was how the Whitney Marsh Foundation was born.

My mom was a really big runner and we wanted to make sure that we encapsulated her actual personality and her passions and things that she really loved in life into the nonprofit. So one of the main ways that we've raised money over the past six years is

has been through hosting a 5K, 10K, to bring people together, doing something that my mom loved, but also promoting some of those healthy lifestyles that can hopefully maybe prevent against things like different forms of cancer. But now looking towards the future, we recognize that Arkansas might be an underrepresented state when it comes to cancer care.

We don't have one of the MD Intersons or the Johns Hopkins or anything of that nature. And we want to make sure that people don't have to leave our state to get the care that they need. So what I would love to see is the Whitney Marsh Foundation becomes one of the leading nonprofits for pancreatic cancer care in the state of Arkansas. so that we're able to bring in those resources.

We're able if people do have to leave the state, then maybe we can be the ones that are going to pay for their travel so that people aren't having to have that financial burden be a barrier to the care that they need to receive.

mean we saw whenever my mom went through we did have to send her outside of the state to get care and it's been really unfortunate because we know a lot of people in our state might not be able to afford to fly outside of arkansas maybe they don't have the ability to take off multiple days of work to go receive care from elsewhere and that is so unfortunate because everyone deserves

the right and the opportunity to survive. But with a disease like pancreatic cancer, with it being as difficult as it is to treat, to detect, to cure, you do have to go sometimes to those best places. And I want everyone to be able to have that same opportunity that my family had.

Obviously, we don't have any perfect answers or solutions right now, but that is going to be our goal and mission as a nonprofit moving forward.