Mackenzie Bonham is a 12 year old from Mahomet, Illinois and in the 6th grade. She is currently the 2022 Young Miss of America. One of her passions is community service and volunteering throughout the state. Mackenzie’s pageant journey began in 2018 when she decided to compete in a local fair pageant and was named the 2018 Little Miss Fisher Fair Queen. In July of 2019, she was appointed Little Miss of Illinois based on her academic record and community service work. A bulk of her community service efforts have been for the Shriners and Shriners Hospitals. In August, 2019, she was invited to the Ansar Shrine Christmas dinner as a thank you, from them, for all of her efforts throughout the year. As a thank you back, she started a fundraiser. She took her birthday and chore money, picked out specific colors for debossed bracelets that say, “I Support Shriners Hospitals” on them, along with the toll-free number on the back of them. She set up tables throughout central Illinois, to request donations for the bracelets. She then launched a challenge to her Facebook followers to reach all 50 states. She wanted bracelets in every single state in the country. She sent out over 1000 bracelets to all 50 states, Australia, England, Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Italy. Her goal when she started was $750.00 and at the conclusion, she raised $3386.14. Mackenzie also created another fundraiser in Spring of 2020 for the hospital. After another successful fundraiser, she raised over $650 for the hospital. She also donated dozens of toys and hundreds of school supply items. To date, Mackenzie has donated over $4,000 to the hospital. Mackenzie was nominated in 2020 for the Illinois Governors Youth Volunteer Service Award and named the 2021 Illinois Governors Youth Volunteer Service Award for her various volunteering efforts around the state of Illinois. In the summer of 2021 Mackenzie was named a non-patient ambassador for Shriners Hospitals of St. Louis.

Follow Mackenzie on her social media: