Parker County Today March 2018 | Page 30

Delaney McKeown Faith in Her Future Delaney McKeown is a 16-year- old who has a work ethic that most adults could only dream about. She is described as a leader among her peers in her spot on student council. She participates in multiple sports, including basketball (where she is the varsity captain), cheerleading, volleyball, and track. She is seen as a 28 leader both off and on the court. She does all this in addition to her full- load of classes.  “She has received numerous awards on the state and local level in both cheer and basketball, earn- ing district honor in track and volleyball, all while juggling a full academic schedule with two to three sports overlapping at a time,” said Alysha Pearson, Marketing and Business Development Assistant for Weatherford Christian.  It is a schedule that even her educator mom, Courtney McKeown, is in awe of.  “She has an internal desire to work really hard,” said McKeown. “I’ve worked with kids my entire life, so I can tell that she has a terrific work ethic for a 16-year-old. The first time I saw her desire to work and help someone else, besides doing things she had done when she was little, was when she helped raise money for a little girl who is the daughter of a family friend we knew with cancer.” The money raised was for a little girl named Brooke Hester, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. Delaney and her friend Bailey Gavin started rais- ing money for the little girl when they were in the fifth grade, making duck-tape wallets and selling them to everyone they knew. The story impacted the girls so much that they wanted to do more than make and sell wallets.  “We wanted to create an event about how she impacted our lives and were inspired by how the family relied on God throughout all of it,” Delaney said. “We were inspired by the little girl’s and the parents’ faith. We picked the event location at Chandor Gardens and the food from Whistle Hill.”  The event was called “Faith, Fashion and Flowers,” and Delaney and her friends raised $13,000 to give to the charity Brooke’s Blossoms, which makes flower headbands that are delivered to little girls throughout the hospital.  This upcoming April, Delaney and other students will be attending