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Sam Shake is packing for Holland
By Danna Webster
KP News
Sam Shake is a Key Peninsula Middle
School student in seventh grade. This summer, he will
serve as a sports ambassador representing the USA in
Holland.
“It is going to be a great trip
because this kind of thing is just a once in a lifetime
chance. All the experience is so great — I’m going to a
country across the world; plus, I can compete in my
favorite sport over there. It is just amazing,” he says.
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KPMS seventh grader Sam Shake will serve as
a People to
People sports ambassador in Holland.
Photo by Danna Webster |
Shake is a wrestler. This is his
fourth year to participate in the sport, two at KPMS and
two with Peninsula Youth Wrestling (PYW).
Mark Helwig coached Sam in sixth
and seventh grades at KPMS. Helwig wrote a letter of
recommendation to People to People, sponsors of the
ambassador program. He is familiar with the program
professionally and personally. His daughter, Taylor,
went to Australia two years ago. He says People to
People is a good social program because it provides a
growing-up experience. It is usually the first time away
from home and family, and allows students to meet new
people, learn to manage funds and operate in a foreign
environment.
“They are really looking for kids
with pretty good grades, involved in athletics, and
coachable,” Helwig says. The trip is not cheap —
Helwig’s family opted to cover the $5,000 costs for
Taylor’s trip to Australia by using money budgeted for
their family vacation. Usually, fundraising is one more
requirement for students in the program.
Sam’s mother, Stacy Shake, says
fundraising is the hardest part. “We are, of course,
trying to raise funds, so Sam is looking for some
opportunities for work. We also have a donated basket
that will be raffled off that we are selling tickets
for,” she said via email.
The basket is a donation from the
Bee Hive antique shop in Gig Harbor. Raffle tickets are
available at the Bee Hive; tickets and the basket will
be on display at Key Fitness in Key Center from May 7 to
11 and at the Livable Community Fair on May 12. The
winning ticket will be drawn at the fair. A Friday night
fundraising skate party is planned for June 29 at the
Civic Center.
Sam has posters up advertising work
for hire: yard work, cleanup, weeding, storm cleanup,
digging, burning. He has already gotten jobs. His mother
thinks all the effort is worth it. She sees this as a
good experience. “Sam is a good age. He will come back
with new maturity. Independence is expected of them,”
she says.
The young man leaves for Holland
July 20. He is already thinking about what he must do to
get ready and what he wants to pack to take with him.
The wrestling rules he has learned over the past four
years are not the rules that will be used in the games
in Holland. “I’ll be wrestling in a different kind of
style — free style. I have to learn rules for that to go
over there,” he explains. As far as what he wants to
pack to take, he says, “Maybe something to trade. So we
can remember and they can remember.”
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News, all rights reserved.
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