Sports Illustrated Kids wants to know: Who will be the SportsKid of the Year? Operation Smile is voting for 15-year-old Sage Karam, one of IndyCar’s rising stars and an avid supporter of Operation Smile. Sage, an Andretti Autosport driver and 2010 USF2000 National Championship winner, has advanced to the SI Kids’ SportsKid of the Year semifinals, but he needs your vote to win.
The winning SportsKid of the Year will be featured on the cover of SI Kids, honored at Sports Illustrated’s annual Sportsman of the Year awards celebration in New York City, and will appear on Cartoon Network’s “Hall of Game.” To vote for Sage, fans can visit the SI Kids site at
http://www.sikids.com/contests/skoty/2010/vote. Voting closes on October 18 at 12 p.m. EST, and the top three finalists will be revealed on October 19.
Off the track, Sage is dedicated to helping children worldwide. He has helped to raise funds and awareness for Operation Smile, an international children’s medical charity that provides free life-changing surgery for children with facial deformities, such as cleft lips and cleft palates. In February 2010, Sage served as a Student Volunteer on an Operation Smile medical mission to Honduras, and then in August, he spoke to over 400 student leaders at Operation Smile's International Student Leadership Conference in Denver.
SI Kids looks for a young athlete who excels in sports, the classroom and in his/her community each year for this award.
Already, Sage has captured the 2010 USF2000 Driver's Championship, helping Andretti Autosport win the team title as well. He won nine races in 12 starts and won the VP Fuels Rookie of the Year despite being the youngest driver on the circuit and one of only two Americans competing. A 15-year-old from Nazareth, Pa., Sage recently finished his first season with Andretti Autosport in the USF2000 National Championship series. Sage scored nine victories in 12 starts this season. He also is an honor student and a championship wrestler.
With the help of international medical volunteers and generous donations, Operation Smile has provided free reconstructive surgeries for children worldwide since its founding in 1982. The need for quality cleft care is urgent. Every 3 minutes, it is estimated that a child is born with a cleft condition. One in 10 children born with a cleft will die before their first birthday.
For more information on Sage’s volunteer work and on Operation Smile’s global efforts, visit the daily blogs on
www.operationsmile.org, follow
@operationsmile on Twitter, and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/operationsmile.
About Operation Smile (www.operationsmile.org)
Founded in 1982 by Dr. Bill and Kathy Magee, Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is a worldwide children’s medical charity whose network of global volunteers are dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults. Since its founding, Operation Smile has treated more than 150,000 children born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities and the organization has a presence in more than 50 countries. In addition to contributing free medical treatment, Operation Smile trains local medical professionals in its partner countries and leaves behind crucial equipment to lay the groundwork for long-term self-sufficiency.
