Get mentioned in a newspaper

A reporter did a thing on Habitat for Humanity last year, and photographed us working on the house.

The caption called me ‘Ken’ and called Ken ‘Luca’.

Ken is at least in his fifties. I’m twenty-four.

it might be fun to get the attention at first but then it just becomes old newspaper and having fish and chips wrapped up in your face isnt pretty!

..I was featured in the national newspaper for achieveing academic excellence in my high school.

Recently My team and I were interviewed by the university newspaper regarding the cancer campaign we started. They featured me as the project manager. It boosted my confidence and reassured us that our efforts went for a good cause and made people more aware of children cancer.

The only way to fly…

...unless you’ve been arrested or something.

I’m not sure it was worth it, but it is precious to me…

Kamiak High School Student’s Death Saddens Community

Kamiak High School and the family and friends of Courtney Marie Wafstet are mourning the death of the 16 year old.
Wafstet died Thursday morning, September 14.

Cindi Wafstet, Courtney’s mother, said the high school junior woke up about 6:30am on Thursday, said good morning to her and father, Tim, then went to take a shower.

A little after 7am Cindi realized Courtney had not come out of the bathroom and was in danger of being late for school.
Cindi found Courtney collapsed in the shower. She administered CPR and was shortly relieved by paramedics who continued to perform CPR for 30 minutes. The efforts to resuscitate Courtney were unsuccessful.

Cindi said Courtney had been out sick from school for a week with a bladder infection, which was being treated by antibiotics.

According to Cindi, until tests are completed to exactly determine the cause of death, it’s the coroner’s best guess that the infection had entered Courtney’s blodd stream. A hot shower could than have accelerated the effects of the infection by dialating blood vessels creating a less restrictive blood flow, Courtney likely died almost instantly as a result.

Dziedra Bennet, a sophomore at Kamiak, had been looking forward to the opportunity to spending more time with Courtney when she discovered they both had the same English class when school started.

But with Courtney missing most of the first week of schoo due to the infection, and then dying only a day or so after returning, that never happened.

Dziedra and Courtney had been good friends when they both attended Olympic View, but had drifted apart a bit when Courtney went to Kamiak a year before Dziedra.
“She was the most bubbly happy person I ever met. She always tried to cheer you up,” Dziedra said. “She found joy in everything. She enjoyed life.”

Everybody noticed Courtney always had a smile on her face.
Courtney was born February 13, 1984.

An avid dancer for the last 10 years, Courtney was taking five classes at the Alderwood Dance Spectrum - everything from ballet to hip-hop.

“It was a big part of her life, ” Cindi said. “Most of her energies went to dance.”

In recent years Cindi said the dancing, especially ballet, had become a priority in Courtney’s life, overshadowing other activities.

Before that, Courtney had been involved in Kamiak’s choir and Conflict Mediation Club.

“Courtney was a really good listener and she had a heart of gold,” club advisor and Kamiak counselor Allison Mead said. “She was just a really kind-hearted sweet person who liked everyone and took an interest in everyone. She made everone feel important.”

Cindi said Courtney was a natural-born counselor with a “burning desire to help people.”

In middle school she was on the Olympic View swim team as well as the Sharks swim team out of Lynnwood
Courtney was also involved with two church youth groups - at Edmonds Church of God and Family Life Center in Mukilteo
“She was a spiritual kid.” Cindi said.

Despite her interest in dance, Cindi said that wasn’t where Courtney was headed professionally.

“It was just something for enjoyment,” Cindi said.

Between school, dance, and church activities, Courtney still found time to work.

Her first job was as a Mukilteo Beacon newscarrier. Most recently she was employed at Alpine Cleaners.

Courtney was planning on attending college at either Evergreen College or Central Washington University to study anthropology and linguistics.

A funeral service was held yesterday. Courtney will be buried in Sequim where the Wafstet family plans on moving to in about six months.

Courtney Wafstet, 16, packed life with action

By Kim Barker, Seattle Times staff reporter

Like most 16-year-olds, Courtney Wafstet wanted everything.

She wanted to be an archaeologist, to dig for long-lost civilizations. She took five dance classes at a time: ballet, hip-hop, tap. She liked the mysteries of space and even visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California last summer with her father. She belonged to two church youth groups. She designed Web pages. She crocheted.

Miss Wafstet died Thursday (Sept. 14) in an accident that her mother says will never make sense, even after the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office determines what to put on her death certificate.

Her mother, Cindi Wafstet, says she and her daughter shared everything. They watched “Roswell” and “Charmed” on TV, they learned to paint their hands and feet with henna designs, and they learned to design Web pages. Cindi Wafstet keeps a journal on her Web page.

“This is the first time I’ve been able to write since this horrible event started,” Cindi Wafstet wrote in her journal Friday.

“What can you say when your child dies? To say we are devastated is a gross understatement. It feels so unreal, so unfair. My daughter should be alive.”

Miss Wafstet’s junior year at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo didn’t start well. She was sent home with a fever the first day. She went to the doctor three times, and she was finally diagnosed with a bladder infection. She got a shot of antibiotics, then some pills, and she started to get better.

Last Wednesday, Miss Wafstet went back to school, back to her part-time job at Alpine Cleaners, back to dance class and back to homework. She went to bed at 9 p.m. She got up at 6 a.m. Thursday and stepped into the shower. Her father knocked on the bathroom door and said, “I love you. I’m going to work.”

“Have a good day,” Miss Wafstet said. “I’ll see you tonight.”

At 7:05 a.m., Cindi Wafstet realized her daughter had been in the shower too long. She opened the door. Her daughter had collapsed in the tub. Cindi Wafstet called for paramedics and tried CPR, but nothing could be done.

The medical examiner has performed an autopsy, but it will be several weeks until the official cause of death is determined.

At school, the door to her locker has been removed. A memorial is there now, with pictures of Miss Wafstet in dance uniforms, her hooded sweatshirt with a cross and Scriptures on the back, the granny-square afghan she crocheted, and letters and poems from her friends and her father.

Her funeral was held yesterday at Edmonds Church of God, where Miss Wafstet attended a youth group. At 7 p.m. today, a memorial service will be held at the Family Life Center in Mukilteo, where she attended a second youth group.

Her favorite song will probably be played at both ceremonies – “Smile,” by the band Vitamin C. It is also her mother’s favorite song. “Put a smile on your face,” the chorus says. “Make the world a better place.”

Michael Blake, one of Miss Wafstet’s best friends, said she always wanted to help other teenagers with their problems. She’d listen to them talk about family conflicts, bad breakups and school. She prayed with them.

Miss Wafstet was once on the swimming team. She played the violin and the cello. She was in Campfire Girls for nine years. She loved science.

“She crammed more life into 16 years than I have in 50,” her mother said. “She was just so analytical about things. She liked to classify things and organize them. She was never happy with the basic answer. She wanted details.”

Miss Wafstet is also survived by her 19-year-old brother, Chris; her grandparents; and many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Instead of flowers, the family is asking that people send donations to the Courtney Wafstet Memorial College Scholarship Fund at 1720 Washington Ave., Mukilteo, WA 98275.

On Wednesday, it will be five years since my daughter died.

I have been in the Evening Tribune many times. I think I’ll be mentioned soon in a much larger newspaper.

I’ve been “mentioned” in the paper many times in the states, but never was a full article written about me until I moved to Japan and helped with a local festival. If you ask me – it must have been a slow day in Goshogawara. However, when I returned the following year, the same reporter did a little follow up story. The best part? Even when people tell me what it says – I still assume they leave out some ridiculous part – which I cannot translate.

I’ve been in the newspaper from a snowball fight when I was 7 or 8 and during interviews from newspapers (and local TV) during initial invasion of Iraq.

So last year I thought it would be a good idea to advertise National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org) by sending press releases about it to local papers. Turns out they’re starved for content, and they assigned a reporter and a photographer to the story, which ended up involving a freaking huge picture of me. Unfortunately the story didn’t really emphasize the point that NaNoWriMo is strongly web-based and that I’m just a volunteer without a lot of resources, so a hojillion people read the story but didn’t bother to go to the NaNoWriMo website and find out more about the event, and they swamped our meetings and I was overwhelmed and it was no fun at all being the poster child, no sirree. So I guess the good news is it’s easier to get into the paper than I thought, but the bad news I don’t really recommend getting into the paper after all.