For seven months, Jacqueline Czarnecki spent each Saturday training for the Miss Dominican Republic of New Jersey pageant. She took etiquette classes, participated in community service projects, shopped for gowns and shared her personal story as best as she could.
In last Saturday’s finale, the 31-year-old Toms River resident received a crown as a top-10 finisher.
That was a big deal, because Czarnecki has autism and is partially verbal, communicating in short sentences or single words. She was the pageant’s first-ever entrant with autism.
