By Charity Bonner Staff Writer
ELGIN -- To overcome morbid obesity is quite an accomplishment. To overcome obesity and be crowned a beauty pageant winner is almost unheard of.
Elgin resident Laurie Faith Gibson-Aiello did just that, winning the Mrs. Illinois contest, and last week placing 13th out of 52 contestants in the Mrs. United States National Pageant in Las Vegas.
Gibson-Aiello is 120 pounds less now than she was in 2001 when she was 23. Since having gastric bypass surgery and losing the weight, she no longer suffers from sleep apnea and has retrained her body to be healthier.
"I used weight-loss surgery as a tool. No more Jenny Craig, no more buying pills at Walgreens," she said.
She went instead to a weight-loss support group where they convinced her to compete in the Miss Illinois contest four years ago. Members of the support group also helped her pick out her outfits for the pageant.
Since her weight loss, she has drastically changed her eating habits by making a conscious effort to eat fresh foods and stay away from sugar.
"I have learned to treat my body like a machine," she said.
Gibson-Aiello has been taking her message to local elementary and middle schools. She will join the Elgin School District U46 Wellness Committee in the fall.
"I go there to smile and show them how to be healthy. I talk to them about beauty and how everyone has their own unique assets and beauty," she said.
Gibson-Aiello also has been working with the YMCA's Activate Elgin program. She is employed as an IT project and instructional designer. In addition to speaking about nutrition and the importance of physical activity, Gibson-Aiello interacts by playing games and doing activities with the children.
In a phone interview conducted while she was in Las Vegas competing, Gibson-Aiello said that being a part of the pageant has opened her eyes to others who are working hard to improve their communities.
"What all these women have in common is that they got sick of hearing about the problems in our community and they all want to do something about it. It gives me hope especially now when everyone is complaining about the economy. At least there are people out there trying to do something still," she said.
Although she would not have expected to win the title of Mrs. Illinois when she was younger, Gibson-Aiello says her family comes from an entertainment background. Her older sister also competed in the Miss and Mrs. Illinois pageants.
Preliminaries and finals for the national pageant were held at the Orleans Showroom Theatre in Las Vegas and will be televised on cable in August.
Gibson-Aiello is sponsored by American Family and Downtown Photo in Crystal Lake, as well as family and friends and people from her church. She would like to find more sponsors for the future. As someone who has competed at the Miss and Mrs. level, she says they are very different.
"At the Mrs. level, you have to be your own manager," she said. "You have to manage your own time, you have a family and job and kids or other volunteer jobs. That makes it more rewarding. It is definitely an accomplishment."
One thing I’ve been BLESSED with from January 2008 – now is to serve my communities as Mrs. Illinois United States and act as an advocate for Illinois Children’s Health – with Congressman Bill Foster on National Health Insurance for kids in need (needed more now than ever), reforming the No Child Left Behind Act, and educating those families at risk in our community about healthy living for their bodies, minds, spirits and our earth. I guess you can say my ‘platform’ as Mrs. Illinois grew quite a bit with all the people I’ve met these last 13 months. ;-)
Jimmy and Ali progressing at a good pace on mile 1.5
