By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
When Kalli Gregory wears the Miss Bowling Green sash as she competes for Miss Ohio the week of June 13-20, she proudly represents Bowling Green and her alma mater Bowling Green State University.
As a two-time BGSU graduate, Gregory is ready to tout the orange and brown, even if she can’t find a Falcon orange evening gown before the competition.
When the Miss Ohio festivities start on June 13, she will represent Bowling Green and the university, but at the heart of her choice to compete in pageants is her older brother, Trent, who lives a full and joyful life with cerebral palsy.
The sashes and crowns she’s worn have provided her a platform to speak about cerebral palsy and Trent’s Triumph, the foundation she created in honor of Trent. She chooses to compete in pageants that have an all-important community service component, allowing her to speak and advocate for cerebral palsy awareness.
That mission started long before pageants were part of her life. She was 12 years old and couldn’t understand why her friends and other kids wouldn’t talk to Trent or said hurtful things about him. She started by giving presentations in her school classrooms and answering questions about cerebral palsy and her brother’s life.
“I’ve always shared with people that those who have CP are just like us; they just move differently,” she said. That is the message she shared as a young teen in school classrooms and auditoriums and continued as founder of Trent’s Triumph and on pageant stages.
She has talked about cerebral palsy awareness in competitions for Miss Castalia Cold Creek (her first pageant), Miss Port Clinton Firecracker, Miss Sparkle Nation, Miss North Central Ohio, Miss Buckeye State, Miss Marion Popcorn Festival and three times for Miss Ohio.
And once she earned those crowns, she took her heartfelt message on the road to other festivals, fairs and parades across the state. In 2025 as Miss Marion Popcorn Festival, she and her traveling partners—her mother Julie and brother Trent—attended 165 events and drove more than 16,000 miles to introduce her brother to others and talk about cerebral palsy.
“We lived that year as if I was already. Miss Ohio, kind of like a test run,” Gregory said.
During the Miss Ohio competition this month as Miss Bowling Green, she will talk about her dedication to cerebral palsy awareness, but also how that advocacy informed her college decision to attend BGSU and study neuroscience.
“I graduated summa cum laude in the top 10% in December with my bachelor of neuroscience degree. It was a long, long journey, but so worth it,” she said about the seven years she worked toward an associate degree and then the bachelor’s degree. “And now I get to represent my alma mater and the Bowling Green community when I compete in Miss Ohio.”
Every time Gregory is introduced as Miss Bowling Green, she plans to mention her two degrees from BGSU.
This is her fourth year in the Miss Ohio competition. She was a contestant in 2023 as Miss North Central Ohio, followed by Miss Buckeye State in 2024 and Miss Marion Popcorn Festival in 2025.
She loves the Miss Ohio pageant because there is such a focus on community service, which is her wheelhouse.
The pageant has also created a second family for Gregory, her mother and brother. She has met some of her best friends through competing.
“They are the most kind people that I have ever met and truly care about us,” she said. “That is really what always brings me back to the organization. I just can’t imagine my life without it.”
In addition to talking about her “why” when it comes to cerebral palsy advocacy, Gregory will compete in fitness, evening gown and talent.
Previously, her talent was dance-based. She did contemporary dance the first year and tap dance for two years.
“This year, I’m switching it way up and doing original slam poetry,” she said. “I’m really excited to share my piece called ‘They Say,’ based on a true story.”
The reading is performance-based with an emphasis on rhythm, emotional delivery and audience engagement. The poem— about words that have been said to her brother and actions she has witnessed as his sister—tells “how we are working to combat that and change the narrative,” she said. Including the topic in the talent portion gives her another chance to interject her compassionate message into the competition.
The Miss Ohio pageant also holds a special memory for Gregory, who grew up Castalia, Ohio, a small community on the coast of Lake Erie, about an hour northeast of Bowling Green.
She was at the Erie County Fair in the middle of August when she met “my first Miss Ohio,” she recalled. “I was super sweaty and my hair was a little bit frizzy, but I can remember meeting her and being in such awe. In such a small community, Miss Ohio was truly a celebrity.”
That was also the first time that little “girly girl Kalli” thought she might be able to wear a crown some day. ”I didn’t really think like that was something that I could do. I didn’t feel like I fit in the box per se.” That all changed when she was named runner-up in the Miss Castalia Cold Creek competition.
That memory also fuels her plans if she would win the Miss Ohio title.
“I want to be that inspiration for other little girls, really visiting those small-town communities across the 88 counties and making sure no one feels left behind,” she said. “I believe in those moments as a child, that God planted the seed in my heart to serve the State of Ohio in some capacity. I hope to inspire the next generation.”
The many hats of Kalli: Scientist, scholar, artist, author
Gregory plans to start a master’s degree in psychology in January. She is also working toward a medical assistant license to work in the neurology department at her local hospital.
With a career goal to be a pediatric neurologist and work with youth who have cerebral palsy, Gregory knows the hospital experience will be important to get into medical school. While that is her current plan, she said she will go wherever God leads her.
In the meantime, she is finalizing a children’s book that she is writing and illustrating with plans to self-publish this year.
After talking with children at schools and festivals and discovering “there is a lack of resources teaching kids what kids look like in a wheelchair or with cerebral palsy, specifically,” she decided to write a book.
“It teaches kids what it truly means to be friends with someone who moves differently. It’s based completely on Trent’s story,” she said. “What better way than to share my lived experience and put that out there?”
The book is a labor of love and a collaboration with Trent, “who tells me what he’s thinking and what he likes. It’s been a lot of fun, and so rewarding,” she said.
She previously used her artistic talents to start a business creating and selling art cards, and she created a downloadable children’s activity book that talks about cerebral palsy.
Staying positive
“If I do win, Miss Ohio, I obviously want to keep my cerebral palsy work going. I’m working right now with United Cerebral Palsy, with their national boards, with their national steering committee for their United for Gold campaign,” she said. “I really want to continue those partnerships and delve deeper into our affiliates that we have in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.”
“At the end of the day, I just leave it up to the Lord,” she said. “I get a little butterflies, but if it’s meant to be, it will not pass me by. And if it’s not meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be in the first place.”
She knows her work will continue whichever path presents itself.
“These judges are wonderful. They are people too,” she said, “But they only see us for a total of 15 minutes, in the private interview and what they see on stage. That’s only a small snapshot of who we are. I would hope they would choose me, but when it’s all over, the reality is, I know who I am, and that’s enough.”
Miss Ohio Week Events:
- Saturday, June 13 at 4:45 p.m. in Downtown Mansfield—Miss Ohio Week Social that is open to the public. All contestants will be there, signing autographs and doing meet and greets with the public.
- Sunday, June 14 at 2 p.m., Park Avenue West, Mansfield—Miss Ohio Parade, open to the public. Autograph session at the Richland Carousel to follow the parade.
- Wednesday, June 17 at 7 pm., Archer Auditorium in Ashland—Miss Ohio Competition, Night One Preliminaries (fitness and evening gown competition); ticketed event. Also, Baskets to the Boardwalk Silent Auction, open to the public; closes June 19 at 7p.m.
- Thursday, June 18 at 7 p.m., Archer Auditorium, Ashland—Miss Ohio Competition Night Two Preliminaries (talent and on-stage question); ticketed event.
- Friday, June 19 at 7 p.m., Archer Auditorium, Ashland—Miss Ohio’s Teen Competition; ticketed event.
- Saturday, June 20 at 7 p.m., Archer Auditorium, Ashland—Miss Ohio Competition Finals (Top 10 contestants re-compete in all categories); ticketed event, followed after the Finals by Miss Ohio Coronation Party, Ashland University Redwood Hall; ticketed event.
Gregory can be found on social media on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/missbowlinggreenoh, on Instagram @kalli_gregory, @trentstriumph, or @kalliscreativecorner.
