Sabers Celebrated at Award Ceremony
Recently the Council for Youth with Chronic Conditions held a banquet to honor kids and teens who were nominated for balancing both their illnesses and personal lives extremely well. Two Souhegan students, Katie McCann and Laurel Auth, were honored at the banquet.
Katie McCann is a senior at Souhegan and struggles with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. “I have to make a lot of alterations to my everyday life because I have JRA.” Katie says, “I can’t do heavy lifting or participate in gym class and after writing my wrists get sore, so schoolwork can be tough.” But even with all of the complications and setbacks that Katie’s illness has caused for her she has managed to start a new club at Souhegan that teaches computer programming and made it possible for computer programming to be taught as a trimester class at Souhegan.
The other student honored was Laurel Auth, who is also a senior at Souhegan. Laurel has Lupus. Lupus is an inflammatory disease where your immune system attacks your body’s tissue and organs. Laurel says “I wish more people understood that when I miss school it’s not because I just don’t want to go or that I don’t feel well it’s because of my illness.” She also would like people to generally be more aware of Lupus and the effects it has.
Laurel’s mom, Elizabeth Auth, said “Events like these me feel humbled. They also remind me that we’re not alone.” There was a sense of community among the families of children with chronic illnesses that I don’t know how to describe. I believe because they are all going through similar things the group becomes a sort of support system offering help and advice to one another.
Souhegan guidance counselor Anne Burke played a big part in Laurel and Katie’s journey to this award ceremony. Anne was the one who nominated them to receive the awards. She knows both students very well and said, “I’m proud of both Laurel and Katie for all their accomplishments and am thrilled that we a able to recognize some of our unsung heros today.”
