About Katie Beyer

Stories by Katie

	TO BE HEALTHY, FOLLOW YOUR NOSE TO FRUIT By Katie Beyer, 12, Mike Bova, , Eric Smith, Is the produce drawer of your refrigerator full of more chemicals than a high school chemistry lab? Some say yes, but Dan Corsaro of Indianapolis Fruit Co. defends his product and says no. "As a country, the United States has the safest food supply of any country in the world," says Corsaro, the executive vice president of sales and marketing of Indianapolis Fruit distributors. "I've been eati
	Timid child blooms into writer By Katie Beyer, 12, Meganne Hoffman, , Elizabeth Simpson, , , As a child, author Judy Blume was extremely imaginative and shy, so she made up stories in her head. And while she still makes up stories, it's not so simple for her now. "It takes a really long time to get an idea and then millions of rewrites to write it," she explained. "I've never really been able to tell a story out loud and make it up as I go along." Despite the effort involved, Blume ha
	Rural northern Indiana youth sends a message to the public By Katie Beyer, 12, Meganne Hoffman, , Andrea Cowden, , Misty Moore, When a baby is born, one of the first things parents do is take pictures and show them to relatives and friends. In Francis Smith's case, his parents had other things on their minds. Smith, now 19 years old, was born with a craniofacial disorder called Treacher Collins Syndrome. Treacher Collins is a condition in which the cheekbones and jawbone are underdeveloped. The ears are often abnormal
	Tutu, South Africa heal wounds from apartheid By Andrea Cowden, , Katie Beyer, 12, Sean Strother, , George Srour, For over four decades, the injustices of apartheid were felt by the blacks of South Africa. The white minority had complete control of the government. Blacks could not vote; they could not work or go to school with whites. They were forced to live in poverty-ridden townships where as many as 15 people were crammed in a small shack without adequate sanitation or even running water. Their only
	SURGERIES, SUFFERING, SELF-ESTEEM By Katie Beyer, 12, Meganne Hoffman, , Andrea Cowden, , Misty Moore, By the time most children turn 4 years old, the only hospital trip they may have made is when they received a bad cut, or maybe a minor burn. To have been to the hospital for 10 surgeries by that young age is heart-rending, but that is just what happened to Jennifer Johnson of Midland, Texas. Jennifer, now 13, was born with cleft palate, a type of craniofacial disorder in which the palate (th
	Here's how produce gets to your table By Katie Beyer, 12, Mike Bova, , Eric Smith, Walking into Indianapolis Fruit's distribution center, it was obvious that fruit is a different product from other merchandise. The temperature of most of the 65,000-square-foot building is set at 34-36 degrees, to best preserve the produce. The company pampers its fruit and vegetables. Dan Corsaro explains why. "Our product is alive basically. It (appeals) to all your senses," said Corsaro a
	Girls advised to give engineering a try By Ashley Kenton, , Maria McNamara, 87, Katie Beyer, 13 Tonya Chipley, an engineer at Ameritech, recalls her education at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago: "Nine times out of 10, I (was) the only female in a class of 200 or 300. I felt that sometimes the teachers didn't expect me to do well because I was a female." Chipley received her degree in electrical engineering, but she's trying to change things so that girls interested in en
	Kids don't allow chronic illnesses to end their futures By Katie Beyer, 13, Paul Bohnert, 13, Misty Moore, , Meganne Hoffman, Many of us are content with our lives and don't bother to worry about problems that Tylenol can't cure. Yes, things could always be better, but mostly we sit and sip our tea, jog our miles and don't think anything at all about what we'll do in the next 15 minutes. Well, recently we met two kids who deserve a pat on the back for putting up with chronic illnesses. First we met Billy Muller. Bill