10-year-old — without hands –wins handwriting contest

By Ed Diokno, Views from the Edge

With the popularity of smartphones and computers, handwriting is an ancient form of communication for the Millennials, but not for 10-year-old Sara Henesley, who was born in China without hands and adopted four-years ago by an American couple.

She recently entered the Nicholas Maxim Award in the 2019 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. The judges were so impressed with her perfect penmanship that she given the award dedicated to contestants with an intellectual, physical or developmental disability.

Sara, who writes by holding her pencil between the ends of her arms, was trained in the fine art of penmanship by her teacher and quickly learned to love writing. “She can do just about anything — oftentimes better than me or my husband,” her mother, Cathryn Hinesley, told CNN.

“The things I can’t do, I try to figure out the ways I can do it and try my best to make it work,” the third-grader told WJZ. “I just try my hardest and put my mind to it and this is what happens.”

Sara, a third-grader at St. John Regional Catholic School in Frederick, Maryland told Good Morning America “I felt excited and proud,” about the award .

Sara’s teacher, Cheryl Churilla, told the Washington Post: “I have never heard this little girl say, ‘I can’t.’ She’s a little rock star. She tackles absolutely everything you can throw at her, and she gives it her best.”

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