If Madison Colberg thought life would quiet down after being in the prestigious Miss Universe Canada Pageant she was certainly mistaken.
 Madison is on her way to Nicaragua with four other finalists from the pageant to work with Operation Smile. In July, she will be heading south for just over a week.
    “It honestly will be the most powerful and emotional experience I will ever have,’ said Colberg.
    She will be there to go to a clinic where children will be receiving surgery to repair cleft lip and pallet made possible by Operation Smile. The charity is near to Madison’s heart and leading up the pageant, she raised over $12,000. As a youngster, she endured the very same surgeries that these children in South America will be undertaking.
    “It is going to be amazing, for me just to see.  As a child, I obviously didn’t see it but my family did. This will be the first time I will see exactly what I went through and speak with the families and the children to give them hope. To show no matter what, you can overcome it.”
     Many of the children are very young and getting the surgery can mean giving the child the ability to thrive. Madison’s surgery came within three months after she was born simply because she could not latch or use a bottle.
“I had a squirt gun as a bottle, that is how I ate as a baby,” she said.
    Along with young children, she will meet some who underwent the surgery before and are now youngsters or teens.
    “That will be very powerful too, because that is such a critical time, especially as a girl,” said Colberg.
     There will be a team of five heading to Nicaragua, including Miss Universe Canada, two from the top five, the Humanitarian Award winner and Madison.
    “I know them all very well,” she said adding there will be opportunities to visit some of the villages and homes of the children, spend time at the clinic and also there will be a number of engagements to help spread awareness of why they are there.
She is very excited to be selected.
    “This truly is the greatest honour of this whole experience,” she said, adding it goes beyond inspiring people with cleft, but all people.
    “We all have things that we feel are imperfect, but really you can overcome it,” she said. ‘It’s about putting yourself out there and going for anything.”