sara skarshaug - Spring 2009

Sara Skarshaug, this issue’s CCA Kid, is a 10 year old from Traverse City, MI. She attends a local Montessori school, where she is in the fifth grade. She recently had spring break and enjoyed the time off from school.

While at school, she loves her language classes the best. There she reads, studies grammar and writes stories. Right now, she’s reading the Magic Treehouse series and is almost finished with the City of Ember series, two of her favorite book collections.

Her love of reading extends beyond school. Sara has been part of a book club for the last year and a half and has read many novels, including, Little Women, Inkheart, Isle Royal and Our Only May Amelia, among many others.

And that’s just the beginning of Sara’s after school activities — most of the week she’s going somewhere or practicing something. She takes guitar lessons on Tuesdays, plays tennis on Saturdays and ice skates three days a week. Since this is her fourth year to ice skate, she’s moved up to the advanced level. Sara was recently part of a synchronized skating team; last season, she and her teammates won three bronze medals. She hopes to continue skating for a very long time.

Most Friday nights are family nights, where everyone gathers to either watch a movie or play games. Recently, she’s seen three movies she’s particularly liked — High School Musical 3, Mamma Mia! and School of Rock.

As for music, she likes listening to Guster, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. She actually saw the Jonas Brothers in concert earlier this year and had a fantastic time.

Sara has a younger brother, Kyle. (He’s featured in this issue’s SuperSib article.) He plays tennis in her classes on Saturday and comes to lend his support at her ice skating competitions. Sara says it can be tough sometimes being the big sister as he “doesn’t listen sometimes,” but all in all she loves him very much.

She and her family have been to some of the CCA Retreats and had a lot of fun at every one of them. Sara has really liked meeting people that have “different symptoms” as well as visiting different places throughout the country. She’s had a chance to make friends at the retreats, with whom she really enjoys catching up every year.

Sara was born with Crouzon syndrome. She has had 21 surgeries/procedures in her life so far with more planned. In fact, her next surgery is scheduled around mid June.

She has some pretty good advice for other kids going through similar circumstances, especially if people stare or make comments. She says that if they think something about you, it’s more about them, not you. She also says to just walk away from the situation. That’s wise advice that everyone can heed.

If you would like to share your story with CCA, please send an email to Annie Reeves at areeves@ccakids.com. If your story is chosen, with your permission, we will edit and publish it in the CCA newsletter, on the Web site or use it for public awareness programs. Not all stories will be selected.

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