PHILLY PROUD: Beauty queen giving back to community during COVID-19 quarantine

When you win a beauty pageant you usually spend the next year making appearances and championing your charitable causes. When COVID-19 hit, as with many things, that all stopped. But we found one pageant winner who turned her quarantine into something that made us Philly Proud.

The life of a beauty queen is short-lived, you only have one year to make your mark. Just ask the current Miss Big Beautiful Woman Delaware 2019, Dawn Belgrave-Pierce. She wasn't going to let her chance to do good be interrupted by COVID-19.

"I put on my brainstorming hat and started thinking," she said. "And I came up with a few initiatives."

She created what she calls the "HEW awards," which stands for Healthcare Essential Workers award. She selects the winners from nominations from her community and gives them all a thoughtful, personal touch.

"Ashton Holden from the Wilmington Police Department. He's on the front lines dealing with all types of people. And Ashton has a love for plants, when he's not working, so his gift entailed a $50 gift card. The gift certificate of appreciation and a plant," she said. "I just wanted to be the hope for the hopeless and the voice for the voiceless. Just love to my fellow man," she said.

But don't call her a hero, she said she just wants to do her part. Long may she reign.