The 18-year-old Miss Teen USA pageant competitor killed in a head-on car crash on a Florida highway this week had veered into oncoming traffic — and died mere minutes from home days after nabbing a $40,000 college scholarship, her adoptive mother said.
Kadance Fredericksen, a former winner of the Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA title, veered her sedan into a tractor-trailer on Monday “for reasons unknown,” according to the Florida Highway Authority.
“She had the whole world right there in her hands, and she was ready to take it on,” Lisa Fredericksen, 48, told People Thursday. “She was literally three minutes from home.
“I have no idea what happened,” her grieving mom continued, noting it was still unclear what caused Kadance, who died at the scene, to veer in front of the truck.
killed in a collision with a tractor-trailer in Florida. Baker School
Kadance, who experienced abuse early in life and was adopted by Lisa in 2017, dove into the world of pageantry after “years of therapy,” her mom told the outlet.
“She came home one day and she said, ‘Mama, can I do a beauty pageant?’ “And I said, ‘Well, yeah, but if you do a beauty pageant, you have to talk in front of people,’ because she still didn’t talk a whole lot,” Lisa recalled.
“And she did it. She bought the ugliest dress she could find because she just wanted to be like a princess. She didn’t win a thing,” she said. “But she was hooked.”
The teen also became involved in various charitable efforts, including founding “Kada’s Promise,” a charity that provides teddy bears and blankets to children in foster care, shelters for abuse survivors and hospitals and kids without a home.
Her compassion won hearts across the nation in 2017 when she first started the initiative.
“During many dark times in my early childhood, the only thing that I could call my own or that made me feel safe was a single teddy bear that I received as a gift. 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,” Fredericksen wrote on the Kada’s Promise website.
Through her time as a pageant queen, Fredericksen claimed the coveted title for her home county. She also competed on numerous levels and even won Little Miss Northwest Florida in 2017 and made it to the Miss Teen Florida competition last year.
Fredericksen was set to graduate from Baker School in the coming months. She had plans to attend college and had been awarded a $40,000 scholarship a mere week before her death.
In addition to starting Kada’s Promise, Kadance used her platform to raise $25,000 for the Ronald McDonald House, which goes toward providing temporary housing for families with a child receiving medical treatment for diseases like cancer.
In the wake of her death, Kadance’s family hopes to continue her legacy through Kada’s Promise. The family has asked those attending her funeral this Saturday to bring teddy bears and to donate on the charity’s website.
“We want the whole world to know who Kadance is,” Lisa told the outlet. “We want to continue touching as many lives as we can, even though she’s not here.”
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash. The 56-year-old tractor-trailer driver was not arrested and only suffered minor injuries from the collision.
