Girl born without hands wins national US handwriting competition
Sara Hinesley, a 10-year old student from Frederick, Maryland, won a national handwriting competition. What is so special about this feat is that Hinesley was born without hands.
Hinesley won the Nicholas Maxim Award in the 2019 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest.
The award is given to a student with a cognitive delay, or an intellectual, physical or developmental disability, with occupational therapists as the judges .
The award comes with a trophy and $500 in prize money as well as $500 in educational materials for her school.
Hinesley holds a pencil between the ends of her arms to write. Hinesley, a student at St. John’s Regional Catholic School in Frederick, Maryland, said when her teacher first taught her how to write in cursive, she found she had a natural talent for it.
Although she hasn’t yet decided what she’ll do with the $500 prize, she hopes other children with disabilities will be inspired by her story.
