Strength of Mind
- 20 October 2020
Alyssa Fedorshak was at her family’s Ephrata Township home one October evening about a year ago when she went into her bedroom in search of the charger for her laptop.
That’s when Fedorshak, who was barefoot, felt a pinprick on the bottom of her left foot. On the red carpet beneath her, she found one tiny, silver piece of a sewing needle. The other piece? That had snapped off in her foot. Three days later, she underwent an hourlong surgery to have it removed.
Just a week earlier, Fedorshak, then a junior at Ephrata High School, had competed in the Lancaster-Lebanon League girls cross country championship race. After her surgery, she thought she could heal fast enough to compete in the upcoming District Three Class 3A championship race, just four days later.