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March 16, 2001/Adar 21, 5761, Vol. 53, No.24
Belying disability, Jager takes crown
ALISA BERMAN
Special Sections Editor
Diane Shapiro Jager, AAA Ms. Senior Arizona 2001, poses with her crown and trophy.
Photo by Lisa Goettsche |
After raising eight children, Diane Shapiro Jager and her husband Jerry, moved to Arizona to retire.
But while other retirees spend hours on the golf course, Jager, 63, organizes fund-raisers, volunteers for local charities, and is initiating a program partnering seeing volunteers with the visually impaired.
Now Jager is the winner of the AAA Ms. Senior Arizona 2001 Pageant. Crowned Feb. 17 at the ASU Sundome Center in Sun City West, she is the second Jewish woman to win the pageant in its 12-year run.
Former Bay Area residents, the Jagers moved to a new home in Surprise just a few months ago. Jager says her husband read about the pageant in the newspaper and suggested to her that she compete. When she told him her only talent was raising eight children, he said, "But you paint. Why not your art?"
Though legally blind, with only 10 percent vision in one eye, Jager is a prolific amateur artist.
"You can be creative in life," she says. "I feel the colors and I see them muted, much like the Impressionists."
Having been assured that her painting would qualify for the Ms. Senior Arizona talent competition, Jager decided to enter. The pageant coordinators encouraged her to see the contest set-up to assuage her fears about managing with her limited vision.
"They worked with me, and they were wonderful," she says.
She says the most difficult part of the pageant was making time for her customary religious observance. Jager attends Friday evening Shabbat services at Temple Beth Shalom in Sun City, held at the same time as pageant practices.
"I don't like giving up Shabbat," she says.
Leaving practice early to attend services meant she didn't see the other contestants' talent presentations until the dress rehearsal.
"I was amazed when I saw everybody else's talent," she says, "and I guess they were surprised to see mine. We had another Jewish woman who won in '99, (named) Esther Kelter. She's a gifted musician," says Jager. "She's the kind of person who wins these pageants - not somebody who just dabbles in art."
Despite her humility about her achievements, Jager won.
"I was absolutely amazed. I didn't have a clue that I could win. I absolutely did not anticipate winning," she says.
Jager recalled the most challenging aspect of the pageant as the judges' interviews the day before. "They ask what your philosophy of life is. I said (to them), I believe that we are to walk the path of our humanity, not right through this world unseeing and uncaring," she says.
In her answer, she recalled the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson. "Basically what he said is that one of the most beautiful rewards of this life is when a man sincerely tries to help another the help is returned." As for her own philosophy, she says, "I believe in social action, and I live it."
She started losing her vision 40 years ago as the result of a degenerative disease; it began to worsen 25 years ago and continues to diminish. Yet her condition has not stopped her creative process or her enthusiasm for new projects.
Jager says she felt impelled to participate in the pageant in part to raise awareness about her disability and to inspire others with disabilities to try new things. It would also be a chance for her to draw attention to the many causes she works to support, including Hadassah, Young Judea and the West Valley Food Bank.
"All these years I've been working with youth. ... My whole emphasis in life has been the kids, so this has been a new experience for me. ... I think that for people with diminished vision it's nice to know there are other things available."
As a member of Temple Beth Am in Los Altos, Calif., Jager spearheaded a program partnering sighted volunteers with the blind community to play sports, shop and even pay bills. She's working to initiate a similar program in the Valley.
She's also chairing a Young Judea project to send underprivileged kids to camp. "There are a lot of Jewish kids with needs, (although) a lot of people think there aren't," she says. "I used to sit on the Bureau of Jewish Education scholarship board, and I, too, was a one-time recipient."
Then a divorced woman, she wanted to give her children the chance to go to camp. "It was a wonderful experience for my kids, and now they're giving back to the community, working at the JCC or being counselors - they're all involved."
She stresses the importance of volunteering, not just as part of her new role as Ms. Senior Arizona, but for everyone.
"I hope to represent the state of Arizona, which is a wonderful, accepting and lovely state...with a great deal of honor," she says. "I would like to be able to reach out to other people."
As Ms. Senior Arizona, she's getting to reach out on a wide scale. Already she has attended a groundbreaking ceremony, a talent show, a radio show and a Northwest Valley Chamber of Commerce dinner and auction. She has also visited several retirement communities to talk about her disability and her art.
"If I could touch one person in that audience to try something new - maybe it isn't painting - but doing something different," she explains. "Not to really feel that life is over because a problem happens. I had to keep up for my kids, and my disease wasn't life threatening," she says. "I'm still here. I've held my kids and my grandchildren. It's not as bad as some people have it."
It's very likely Jager's positive attitude contributed to her victory.
For Jager, the experience was a delight.
"The women were wonderful," she recalls. "We have a good camaraderie; it was a great group of ladies and we've gotten together once since the pageant and we're getting together again later this month."
Four of her eight children (Megan, Zachary, Rifka, Daniel and Chris Couto; and Jose, Rochelle and Ellie Taylor) and two of her grandchildren attended the pageant. She says while she was on stage, she heard one of them yell, "Way to go, Mom!"
Jager will have plenty of support when she competes in the Ms. Senior America Pageant in October in Laughlin, Nev. All eight of her children will be there, and some members of Beth Shalom will travel by bus to cheer her on.
"Can you imagine?" she laughs. "Somebody even suggested getting T-shirts."
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