Vanessa Crotteau This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Youth of the Year

   www.bgcricelake.org/main.asp?i - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/30/2007   Last Visited: 6/30/2007

   Crotteau named state Youth of the Year
   
   Helping to heal the emotional scars, Vanessa Crotteau turned pain into a positive undertaking earning her the 2006 Boys and Girls Clubs Wisconsin Youth of the Year award.
   
   After the loss of her father and brother in a hunting tragedy in 2004, Crotteau turned her grieving into giving.
   
   On March 6 at a Boys and Girls Club program in Madison, Crotteau told her story of how by helping others, her own life has benefited.
   
   The program, sponsored by the Reader's Digest Foundation since 1947, recognizes outstanding contributions to a member's family, school, community and Boys and Girls Club, as well as personal challenges and obstacles overcome.
   
   Along with winning the title, Crotteau received a $1,000 scholarship from the Reader's Digest. She also received a $1,000 scholarship from the Wisconsin Boys and Girls Club State Alliance.
   
   "To have Vanessa chosen to represent the Boys and Girls Clubs of Wisconsin is a tremendous honor to bestow upon one of our members and the club here in Rice Lake," said the executive director of the Rice Lake Club, Ryan Scheel.
   ...
   Crotteau was selected last month as Youth of the Year for the Boys and Girls Club in Rice Lake.
   
   She is a junior at Rice Lake High School. She carries a grade point average of 3.7 and is a member of Student Council, National Honor Society, Students Against Destructive Decisions, choir, cross country and the basketball team. She is vice president of SADD and president of her 4-H group and leads the group in projects such as roadside cleanups.
   
   In the community, Crotteau volunteers her time with Meals on Wheels, Our House Memory Center, her church and the B and G Cafe at Rice Lake Middle School.
   
   Speaking from the heart
   
   All 18 candidates from throughout Wisconsin were required to give 3-minute speeches for a panel of judges, the other candidates and staff.
   
   Crotteau began her speech by telling the audience that she felt she had been living life in the perfect world with supportive parents before the life-changing incident occurred.
   
   "Along with two wonderful parents, I was also granted with what some girls may say to be a nightmare, but what I referred to as a fortunate blessing, my two older brothers," she said. "These two brothers of mine, not only did they include me in everything, they also understood their role in my life whether it was needing help with school work or having them listen to me ramble on and on about all of the things that really did matter to a teenage girl.
   
   "I used to worry about the little things that seemed to mean the world to me at one point, such as clothes, popularity and everything else that comes along with those teenage years we all have struggled through," Crotteau continued.
   
   On Nov. 21, 2004, her life was changed forever.
   
   "At 12:30 p.m. on that particular day, Carter, the middle child of our family, embraced me in his arms and said to me words I never imagined would be coming out of his mouth," said Crotteau. "He informed me that our dad and oldest brother Joe, along with three other dear friends of our family, had just been killed in a hunting massacre, also leaving another critically injured only to pass away a later time.
   
   "What I had known to be the perfect world had just been destroyed in a matter of a few spoken words," she said.
   
   "The next 2 weeks of my life were a complete blur," Crotteau said. "I was a 16-year old girl planning my father and brother's funeral rather than dribbling up and down the court with my basketball team, entering the holiday season with excitement of just being a teenage girl in high school."
   
   Crotteau said that she realized that she would never again be greeted by the smiles of her father or brother.
   
   "It was hard to believe that I would never be walked down the aisle by my father and never be able to see Joe become the wonderful man he would have been," Crotteau said.
   
   In the healing process, Crotteau said she had to reflect on what she had been taught and push forward.
   
   "I began to focus on things that really did matter. I went back to my basketball team with more drive than ever, I set my education goals higher, and most importantly, I realized just how much of an impact one person can make on another human being," she said.
   
   Crotteau had been a member of the Boys and Girls Club of Rice Lake almost since it opened.
   
   "I enjoyed being with some of the most wonderful kids. As much as these kids meant to me, I soon figured out that I wanted my positive impact to be directed towards them," said Crotteau.
   
   She started by volunteering time after school to the B and G Cafe, where students can get help with any subject that they may be struggling with.
   
   "I knew what suffering really meant and how it affected one's self and I didn't need for these kids to be struggling with something I had the ability to change," Crotteau said.
   
   "As time went on, I began to see more kids smiling and laughing rather than having tears run down their face, and that is the most rewarding thing that any person could ever experience," she said.
   
   "I have known Vanessa for a few years and she never ceases to amaze me," said Scheel.
   ...
   Roxanne Spillett, president of Boys and Girls Clubs of America, said, "Vanessa and other nominees offer proof that Boys and Girls Clubs across the country are fulfilling their mission of inspiring and enabling young people."
   ...
   The next step for Crotteau is to compete this summer for the title of Midwest Region Youth of the Year and a $10,000 scholarship.

2. 2. Rice Lake Online - 28 South Main

   www.chronotype.com/../../../ne - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/16/2006   Last Visited: 3/16/2006

   Crotteau named state Youth of the Year
   
   Helping to heal the emotional scars, Vanessa Crotteau turned pain into a positive undertaking earning her the 2006 Boys and Girls Clubs Wisconsin Youth of the Year award.
   
   After the loss of her father and brother in a hunting tragedy in 2004, Crotteau turned her grieving into giving.
   
   On March 6 at a Boys and Girls Club program in Madison, Crotteau told her story of how by helping others, her own life has benefited.
   
   The program, sponsored by the Reader's Digest Foundation since 1947, recognizes outstanding contributions to a member's family, school, community and Boys and Girls Club, as well as personal challenges and obstacles overcome.
   
   Along with winning the title, Crotteau received a $1,000 scholarship from the Reader's Digest. She also received a $1,000 scholarship from the Wisconsin Boys and Girls Club State Alliance.
   
   "To have Vanessa chosen to represent the Boys and Girls Clubs of Wisconsin is a tremendous honor to bestow upon one of our members and the club here in Rice Lake," said the executive director of the Rice Lake Club, Ryan Scheel.
   ...
   Crotteau was selected last month as Youth of the Year for the Boys and Girls Club in Rice Lake.
   
   She is a junior at Rice Lake High School. She carries a grade point average of 3.7 and is a member of Student Council, National Honor Society, Students Against Destructive Decisions, choir, cross country and the basketball team. She is vice president of SADD and president of her 4-H group and leads the group in projects such as roadside cleanups.
   
   In the community, Crotteau volunteers her time with Meals on Wheels, Our House Memory Center, her church and the B and G Cafe at Rice Lake Middle School.
   
   Speaking from the heart
   
   All 18 candidates from throughout Wisconsin were required to give 3-minute speeches for a panel of judges, the other candidates and staff.
   
   Crotteau began her speech by telling the audience that she felt she had been living life in the perfect world with supportive parents before the life-changing incident occurred.
   
   "Along with two wonderful parents, I was also granted with what some girls may say to be a nightmare, but what I referred to as a fortunate blessing, my two older brothers," she said. "These two brothers of mine, not only did they include me in everything, they also understood their role in my life whether it was needing help with school work or having them listen to me ramble on and on about all of the things that really did matter to a teenage girl.
   
   "I used to worry about the little things that seemed to mean the world to me at one point, such as clothes, popularity and everything else that comes along with those teenage years we all have struggled through," Crotteau continued.
   
   On Nov. 21, 2004, her life was changed forever.
   
   "At 12:30 p.m. on that particular day, Carter, the middle child of our family, embraced me in his arms and said to me words I never imagined would be coming out of his mouth," said Crotteau. "He informed me that our dad and oldest brother Joe, along with three other dear friends of our family, had just been killed in a hunting massacre, also leaving another critically injured only to pass away a later time.
   
   "What I had known to be the perfect world had just been destroyed in a matter of a few spoken words," she said.
   
   "The next 2 weeks of my life were a complete blur," Crotteau said. "I was a 16-year old girl planning my father and brother's funeral rather than dribbling up and down the court with my basketball team, entering the holiday season with excitement of just being a teenage girl in high school."
   
   Crotteau said that she realized that she would never again be greeted by the smiles of her father or brother.
   
   "It was hard to believe that I would never be walked down the aisle by my father and never be able to see Joe become the wonderful man he would have been," Crotteau said.
   
   In the healing process, Crotteau said she had to reflect on what she had been taught and push forward.
   
   "I began to focus on things that really did matter. I went back to my basketball team with more drive than ever, I set my education goals higher, and most importantly, I realized just how much of an impact one person can make on another human being," she said.
   
   Crotteau had been a member of the Boys and Girls Club of Rice Lake almost since it opened.
   
   "I enjoyed being with some of the most wonderful kids. As much as these kids meant to me, I soon figured out that I wanted my positive impact to be directed towards them," said Crotteau.
   
   She started by volunteering time after school to the B and G Cafe, where students can get help with any subject that they may be struggling with.
   
   "I knew what suffering really meant and how it affected one's self and I didn't need for these kids to be struggling with something I had the ability to change," Crotteau said.
   
   "As time went on, I began to see more kids smiling and laughing rather than having tears run down their face, and that is the most rewarding thing that any person could ever experience," she said.
   
   "I have known Vanessa for a few years and she never ceases to amaze me," said Scheel.
   ...
   Roxanne Spillett, president of Boys and Girls Clubs of America, said, "Vanessa and other nominees offer proof that Boys and Girls Clubs across the country are fulfilling their mission of inspiring and enabling young people."
   ...
   The next step for Crotteau is to compete this summer for the title of Midwest Region Youth of the Year and a $10,000 scholarship.