LHS freshman amazes at school and home

An artist, a writer, a photographer and a musician. That is an impressive resume by any standard. Add honors student and club president, and a portrait of an incredible teenager emerges.

Fifteen-year-old Becky Williams, a ninth-grader at Lakeland Junior High School, also is editor of the school yearbook as well as president of Idaho Drug-Free Youth, a group of freshmen who conducts fundraisers, works on projects in school and provides outreach to younger kids.

“We visit the students at John Brown Elementary and talk to the kids,” said Williams. “We do activities with them and talk about peer pressure.”

The group is working on a 15-by-8-foot mural at Lakeland Junior High.

“It is of Rathdrum Prairie with a hawk,” said Williams. “The hawk is our school mascot.”

Williams is drawing the mural and will enlist the help of the rest of the group to paint it. She hopes to have it completed when school is out, but if not, she’ll work on it during the first days of summer vacation until it is finished.

“I also designed the sweat shirts” for the junior high and high school, she said.

As editor of the yearbook, Williams says, she enjoys photography and writing.

“Last year, I took a lot of the pictures that were put in the yearbook,” and she also enjoys using her mother’s camera to take pictures of her horses.

One of Williams’ ambitions is to write a novel. “I really want to write a fantasy book,” she said.

In the little spare time she has, Williams takes piano and oboe lessons and looks forward to playing in the high school band next year. She says she particularly enjoys playing music from “The Lion King” and “Titanic.”

It seems as though life is perfect for this young woman. But she has faced challenges and risen above them.

Nearly three years ago, Williams and her parents moved from their family-owned resort on Priest Lake to Rathdrum to help care for Williams’ ailing grandmother.

“My grandma has COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and has to use oxygen,” said Williams. “So we are living with my grandmother and taking care of her.”

It was only about six months after moving to Rathdrum that Williams’ mother also fell ill.

“She had Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” said Williams. “That is a kind of cancer.”

Williams has three siblings, all in their 30s. Two of them run the family’s business, Kaniksu RV Park and Resort, while Williams and her parents have been living in Rathdrum.

“I go back to Priest Lake on weekends to help my dad at the resort, and my mom stays here with my grandma,” she said.

While her mother underwent treatment, Williams helped her father with chores including taking care of their four cats, four dogs and two horses.

“I helped make dinner, too,” she added.

Tifani Young, a teacher at Lakeland Junior High, calls Williams “a wonderful leader in the school.”

“She does amazing artwork and has helped her mom, who has had some significant health issues,” Young said.

On top of everything else, Williams is enrolled in honors math and English classes as well as the gifted and talented program.

“I do about three hours of homework a night and sometimes more,” she said.

Williams’ mother still has problems with her joints and has side effects from radiation, but she is doing better, her daughter says.

“My mom just got tests back a couple of weeks ago, and she doesn’t have cancer anymore.”