Monday, March 1, 2010

She won Silver, but her family is true Gold

I enjoyed watching the WINTER OLYMPICS on TV. How thrilling it is to see so many gifted athletes displaying their skills.

But even more fun was reading about Katherine Reutter who won the silver medal in short-track speed skating, which is worth $25,000.

This 21-year-old is giving all she won to her parents in Champaign, Illinois, to fix up their house which is filled with cracked walls and warped panels, because her mom always said, “We have better things to spend our money on."

Those “better things” were Katherine’s figure skating as a youngster, then later speedskating after seeing her enjoy racing her teammates more than doing jumps and spins.

Beth Reutter, Katherine’s mom is a teacher at the University of Illinois, and her dad Ray, is a package handler for Fed Ex.

Katherine is an only child and her parents drove her regularly (3 hours each way) for practices with elite coaches in St. Louis.

Now that’s family dedication!