Until July 2001, Venus Quejada Day, a 1992 graduate of Notre
Dame, had a resume that looked like a road map of life in the
fast lane. She worked as a computer consultant, traveling everywhere
from Puerto Rico to Pierre, South Dakota, from her home in Washington,
D.C., while her husband, Ian Day, also a '92 ND graduate, was
in medical school at Georgetown. In her spare time, she competed
in beauty pageants. Later she managed the 20-acre ranch she and
Ian bought when they moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, for his
medical residency.
Then came that odd detour: Day added "mermaid" to her extensive
resume.
Over the past 18 months, Day has donned a prosthetic mermaid
tail to make hundreds of public appearances as a mermaid. Many
of these have been at Give Kids the World, a resort in central
Florida for sick or terminally ill children. She appeared there
once every other week last fall. Since mermaids don't walk, Day
would be carried out to the pool in costume, then rolled into
the water for her grand entrance.
"I swim around and do a roll or some type of trick and then
proceed to swim underwater around the perimeter of the pool. Then
I start to hold the children and help them float or just hug them
and take pictures with them," she says. "We swim together holding
hands. I massage the legs of those in wheelchairs who can't come
out all the way by themselves."
Day's evolution into a mermaid wasn't planned. After she and
Ian moved to Daytona Beach, she started her own consulting firm,
Evening Star Research, and won numerous pageant titles, including
Ms. Central Florida and Mrs. Florida American Achievement. Then
a car accident in July 2001 left her unable to walk due to extensive
joint and ligament injuries.
To regain her mobility, Day took up swimming under the direction
of her husband, a family-practice physician. "I couldn't use my
arms, I couldn't use my legs, and the first step [in physical
therapy] is to strengthen your back because if that's not strong
you can't really do anything," says Day. "Ian taught me how to
undulate in the water -- like a dolphin -- and that's what I spent
all my time doing."
Eventually the intense therapy in the pool paid off. Day made
a full recovery, with the added bonus of now being able to hold
her breath underwater for 2½ minutes at a time.
September 11 fell just as Day was recovering full use of her
limbs. The combination of the terrorist attacks and her own physical
rehabilitation caused her to re-evaluate her priorities. "I thought,
'I need to focus more on people and on getting in touch with them,'"
says Day. "I had donated to charities, but I had never actually
done anything, which is so much more valuable -- a hug
is worth $100."
Combining her pageant experience and new aquatic abilities,
Day came up with the idea of posing as a mermaid as part of community
outreach. She even added it to her pageant "platform," a statement
of what a contestant would do if crowned.
She then called Thom "The Tailman" Shouse, a special-effects
artist who developed the prosthetic mermaid tails used in the
film Splash. "I had a tail being made already, but when
I looked at some of the Splash material on the Internet
and television, I decided to call Thom out of the blue," Day says.
Shouse wanted to showcase his work at a vendor's convention
for amusement parks in Orlando, so he agreed to meet Day and let
her try the tail out.
"She sat on a rock in a mermaid's tail for eight hours without
a break or anything," he says. "She was so amazing -- people would
walk by, and she'd strike up a conversation with them. She just
has such a personality and a way about her that people are drawn
to her."
The two began doing appearances at Marineland and parades around
Florida. In the end, Shouse left Day the fin he had created for
her. "She's very inspiring and supportive," he says. "I mean,
I left a $15,000 tail with her -- I trust her implicitly."
This summer Day's plans are, as always, varied. She continues
to work part time as a computer consultant, doing mostly research
work for clients, and she also coaches other young women in pageants.
As the reigning Miss America Worldwide 2003, she does a great
deal of charity work, appearing at local hospices and, of course,
swimming with young children in mermaid form. She will also compete
for the title of Miss Global Worldwide in October 2003. (The Worldwide
pageants emphasize talent and achievement over looks.)
"The power of getting them [the children] out of reality for
just a little while so they can forget about their pain and also
to show them that there's a little magic in life is incredible,"
Day says of her appearances at Give Kids the World. "It makes
me grounded. . . . It's a blessing to work with them"
* * *
Kristin Kramer, a member of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic
Education program, currently teaches seventh and eighth grade
in Jacksonville, Florida.
(July 2003)
