Pole vaulter trying to raise money for Deaflympics
Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 9:06 am
http://www.mcall.com/sports/all-deaf-ol ... sports-hed
Trying to vault a new challenge
Pole-vaulter Seth Keck needs $4,500 to compete in the 2004 Deaflympics in Australia.
By Mandy Housenick
Of The Morning Call
Nobody can say the Kecks haven't tried.
They've sent out more than 100 letters to Lehigh Valley businesses and non-profit organizations, such as the United Way and Special Olympics of the Lehigh Valley. They've even e-mailed Oprah Winfrey.
No one has responded.
And if the Kecks don't raise $4,500 in the next three weeks, their son, Seth Keck, who's been deaf since he was 22 months old, won't be able to participate in the 2004 Deaflympics in Melbourne, Australia. He qualified this past spring as a pole-vaulter.
''It would mean a lot to me,'' the 20-year-old Seth wrote via e-mail. ''It would be a dream come true. It would be a great experience. I hope to raise enough money to go. If we can't, I would be very upset and disappointed.''
So would his parents, Barbara and David Keck. They've been encouraging Seth, a 2002 Salisbury graduate, to participate in sports since he was a kid. And he has.
He's won two gold medals in the Keystone State Games' decathlon. As a senior at Salisbury, Seth took second in the pole vault in the Colonial League and District 11 meets. Last year he was a starting forward on Northampton Community College's soccer team.
Now that he's at Gallaudet University in Washington, he's a pole-vaulter on the track and field team.
But without the help of some kind-hearted, generous Lehigh Valley businesses and residents, Seth, who has cleared 14 feet, will have to turn his back on his team from Jan. 5-16, 2005.
''I don't have $4,000 to give him,'' said Barbara Keck, who is an educational interpreter for the deaf at Parkway Manor Elementary School. ''That's not in my bank account. We would love to see him do this. He keeps e-mailing me and asking if we've gotten any money. I told him I'm doing what I can.''
Seth, who is majoring in fine arts and considering going into animation, manages to keep improving, despite not having a pole vaulting coach at Gallaudet. He counts on his father to give him instruction at meets. Plus he gets together with other pole-vaulters at an indoor training facility in the District of Columbia for extra workouts.
The Kecks were living in California when Seth was an active toddler with a 350-word vocabulary. Then he was diagnosed with spinal meningitis at 22 months; he was just two months shy of getting the meningococcal vaccine. The common 10-day hospital stay for someone with spinal meningitis turned into three weeks for Seth.
Making things even tougher on Barbara Keck â€â€
Trying to vault a new challenge
Pole-vaulter Seth Keck needs $4,500 to compete in the 2004 Deaflympics in Australia.
By Mandy Housenick
Of The Morning Call
Nobody can say the Kecks haven't tried.
They've sent out more than 100 letters to Lehigh Valley businesses and non-profit organizations, such as the United Way and Special Olympics of the Lehigh Valley. They've even e-mailed Oprah Winfrey.
No one has responded.
And if the Kecks don't raise $4,500 in the next three weeks, their son, Seth Keck, who's been deaf since he was 22 months old, won't be able to participate in the 2004 Deaflympics in Melbourne, Australia. He qualified this past spring as a pole-vaulter.
''It would mean a lot to me,'' the 20-year-old Seth wrote via e-mail. ''It would be a dream come true. It would be a great experience. I hope to raise enough money to go. If we can't, I would be very upset and disappointed.''
So would his parents, Barbara and David Keck. They've been encouraging Seth, a 2002 Salisbury graduate, to participate in sports since he was a kid. And he has.
He's won two gold medals in the Keystone State Games' decathlon. As a senior at Salisbury, Seth took second in the pole vault in the Colonial League and District 11 meets. Last year he was a starting forward on Northampton Community College's soccer team.
Now that he's at Gallaudet University in Washington, he's a pole-vaulter on the track and field team.
But without the help of some kind-hearted, generous Lehigh Valley businesses and residents, Seth, who has cleared 14 feet, will have to turn his back on his team from Jan. 5-16, 2005.
''I don't have $4,000 to give him,'' said Barbara Keck, who is an educational interpreter for the deaf at Parkway Manor Elementary School. ''That's not in my bank account. We would love to see him do this. He keeps e-mailing me and asking if we've gotten any money. I told him I'm doing what I can.''
Seth, who is majoring in fine arts and considering going into animation, manages to keep improving, despite not having a pole vaulting coach at Gallaudet. He counts on his father to give him instruction at meets. Plus he gets together with other pole-vaulters at an indoor training facility in the District of Columbia for extra workouts.
The Kecks were living in California when Seth was an active toddler with a 350-word vocabulary. Then he was diagnosed with spinal meningitis at 22 months; he was just two months shy of getting the meningococcal vaccine. The common 10-day hospital stay for someone with spinal meningitis turned into three weeks for Seth.
Making things even tougher on Barbara Keck â€â€
