Former UNL track standout Maggi Thorne raising awareness of global poverty via pageant title, obstacle races (2024)

BY JODI FUSON

A decade after graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Husker track and field captain Maggi Thorne has found a way to incorporate her love for running, love for children and title as Mrs. Great Plains International 2014. The mother of three was selected to represent the Great Plains Region for the Mrs. International pageant last summer and reigns through Aug. 14.

Thorne spent the past several months as an international spokesperson for Soles4Souls, a cause that provides shoes to impoverished children around the world. She even spearheaded a local effort to conduct The Greatest Shoe Drive on Earth, an attempt to break a Guinness Book of World Records record for recycling shoes. The curbside drive collected 21,600 pairs during April and May. Lincoln is the first city in the world to successfully complete this type of shoe drive, Thorne said. “My goal is to raise awareness.”

Her partnership with Soles4Souls is one facet of her participation in the Mrs. International pageant, which requires contestants to select a platform of their choice to promote during their one-year reign. Thorne said she wanted her cause to have a tie-in to her sport and at the same time draw attention to an international issue. It all goes back to the community health degree she earned at UNL and her desire to improve life for children around the world.

Thorne hopes to raise awareness for Soles4Souls another notch by capturing the Mrs. International title in Jacksonville, Fla., July 25-26. The pageant showcases women 21 to 56 years of age who have been married at least six months and are a resident of the state or country they represent. Each contestant competes in interview, evening gown and fitness wear competitions. Thorne said she likes the pageant format because it allows her husband, Fred (Lincoln Southeast High School assistant varsity football coach and former Husker football player), to escort her onstage for the evening-gown event and doesn’t require modeling a swimsuit.

The 33-year-old elite obstacle course racer has helped raise awareness and money for Soles4Souls via her sport, too. Thorne donated 25 percent of her winnings to the cause last year when she placed second at the 2013 World’s Toughest Mudder and vowed to do the same for additional competitions.

Thorne gained more publicity for Soles4Souls when she was featured on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior June 23. She was so focused on the finish line that she didn’t make it past the first obstacle, but she said the competition taught her to take one obstacle at a time.

Earlier this year, Thorne traveled to Haiti and Honduras to help with Soles4Souls shoe distributions. When she pulled out her crown and pageant sash, the impoverished children she was giving shoes to were transformed, she said. “I saw this whole other light come on.”

Thorne said in a world full of so much hurt and pain, she wants to spread hope and be part of not just constructing buildings and facilities but building people. As a part of the facilities team at UNL, Thorne has helped lead efforts to develop and build $340 million in athletic facilities.

She uses her running time to think and plan ways to be intentional and make a difference.

“I need to be in the state of always being prepared,” she said. She talks daily to her contact at Soles4Souls, offering her ideas and what’s on her heart.

Thorne looks for ways to positively influence her children, too. She especially enjoys coaching her 8-year-old son’s soccer team. “I love that I get to walk alongside them and teach them leadership,” she shared.

And at the end of the day, she wants everyone she comes into contact with to know that they are important and should never give up. At one point she was tempted to do just that. “I went through this process where I was too scared to try anymore,” she said.

The California girl who grew up in a tough neighborhood and ended up in an abusive first marriage went from trying to take her life to making it to the National Championship in 400 hurdles her senior year at UNL.

“I started developing the mindset, ‘What if I just try today?’” she said. With that mentality and hard work, she secured a job with UNL facilities right after graduation and is now assistant director of capital planning and construction.