Waldwick, New Jersey
The #1 Fan
In 2023, Waldwick High School inducted Katie into its Hall of Fame. Not for playing. For showing up. Soccer, football, basketball, wrestling, baseball and softball, boys and girls. She misses a game only when two are scheduled at once.
Let’s go Warriors!
Where it all started
She was about thirteen, down at the Jersey Shore with her grandfather, Pop. The two of them went looking for a craft to keep busy. They came back with beads. The rest is history.
Ask her family how many keychains she has made since and the answer is too many to count.
The first ones she sold, she gave away
A friend of Katie’s in town needed help, and the town put together a fundraiser. Katie made keychains to sell, and donated what they brought in.
How one gets made
She buys the beads, the lacing and the rings. She picks the colors and works out the pattern, and she pulls the letters for the name herself. Then the beads go on the string, with an aide or somebody in the family working alongside her.
Nothing goes in an envelope that Katie has not looked over first. She also handles getting paid, which she is very good at.
In her own words
- #1 Fan
- Generous
- Spirited
Her family will tell you the rest: passionate about her teams, extremely social, always on the go, and entirely unfiltered about whatever she happens to be thinking.