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June is a busy time for high-school seniors. For most, Graduation marks a bittersweet time of leaving behind childhood friends and looking forward to new found freedoms of becoming an adult.
Christi Frietag, a local high school senior, was forced to become an adult a little sooner than everyone else. Living in Bandon, Ore. at the time Christi suffered complications from a trampoline accident. The accident broke her neck and left her disabled, unable to move from the waist down. Doctors told Christi that she wouldn't be able attend school or graduate and she was lucky just to be alive.
Christi refused to listen to the doctors and moved with her mother to Albany, a community where she could take on-line classes through the Greater Albany Public School System and Linn-Benton Community College. Her only set-back was the cost of high-speed internet and a computer.
With the drive to succeed and a call to the United Way, Christi was well on her way. United Way partner agency, Boys and Girls Club of Albany had children in their Computer Science program build Christi a computer and the United Way found a way to provide internet service to Christi. The children at teh club learned bout compling and programming a computer system and their project, the computer, changed Christi's life forever.
Nearly two years after the accident Christi will graduate from high school and walk with her Bandon High School classmates. Christi inspires everyone she meets; the enthusiastic teen has defeated odds and continues to persevere. Next year Christi will continue her education at Linn-Benton Community College; there is no doubt that she can achieve anything she puts her mind to!
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