Veronica Zieba, a student at Copiague Middle School, was the grand prize winner in the Kids in Action Youth Conference essay contest. To enter this contest, students chose from a variety of themes based on overcoming odds, Zieba’s essay was chosen out of thousands of entries and she was honored at the Conference, where she received $250.

The keynote speaker at this year’s conference was Sarah Reinertsen, who was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, a bone growth disorder that ultimately required the amputation of her leg above the knee when she was a young child. At age 30, despite her unique circumstances, she became the first female runner with a prosthetic leg to complete the Hawaii Ironman triathlon. TheIronman triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26-mile marathon run, raced in that order and without a break. In her essay, Zieba stated, “I have always thought that I wouldn’t be good at anything because of my hearing loss and that I wouldn’t be able to reach my goals. Thismessage ‘You can overcome just about anything if you just have determination’ has definitely given me full confidence in myself. It has also impacted me; it gives me the potential to go aftermy dreams…Because of Sarah Reinertsen I now have full confidencein myself and I now know that I am more than just a girl with hearing aids.”