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Teen of the Week: George is running toward his future

By Brett Dunlap 8 min read

PARKERSBURG - Connor George is going the distance in running and life.

George, 18, is a recent graduate of Parkersburg High School, having been on both their cross-country and track teams throughout middle school at Jackson and high school. This August, he is heading to the University of Charleston on a track/cross country scholarship where he plans to study business and accounting with the hopes of being able to start his own business one day.

He is the son of his mother Shannon and step-father Mark Williams.

George also earned his Eagle Scout through Scouting USA this past February and officially received it in April at his Court of Honor.

For many years he was always one of the youngest in his group of friends and peers. A lot of times he ended up working harder to be able to keep up with the others.

"I was always working up and trying to be like I was one of those guys," he said.

He began in Cub Scouts, starting at 5 years old, and worked his way up to Boy Scouts, first with Troop 74 and then Troop 3, when he was old enough, earning 21 merit badges and a snorkeling award.

Every Scout working toward their Eagle Scout has to do a community service project and help direct fellow Scouts to carry it out.

George created six raised flower beds at Eagle Point Nursing Home for the Dementia Unit.

He has had family members impacted by dementia who went to Eagle Pointe, and wanted to do something to help.

George oversaw 1-12 Scouts from Troops 3 and 74 who worked on the project over the course of three Thursdays.

The flower beds, which are 3 feet tall, 5 feet long and 1 foot wide, are tall enough for the wheelchairs to go underneath, but big enough for those who are able to stand.

"A lot of people with dementia and Alzheimer's like to keep their hands busy," George said. "It gives them something to do such as digging in the dirt or dead heading plants (removing dead flowers from a plant)."

The flower beds also give patients the chance to get outside more often. The location of the flowerbeds is completely surrounded by buildings so the residents are in a secured area where they can still be monitored.

"The area was so plain and I wanted to help make it more colorful and lively," George said. "Also a lot of the dementia and Alzheimer's patients tend to go back in time, and it seems like a lot, especially the women, often enjoyed gardening in their past, and that brings back some memories and gives them something calming to do."

Lately, the residents have planted strawberries in a couple of them and the patients get to go out, pick them and enjoy them, he said.

His favorite merit badge was swimming. George grew up swimming and swam competitively from 4 years old to when he was a freshman in high school. He swam on teams at the YMCA and in North Hills.

"It was one of the easiest for me to do and it was a lot of fun for me to do with the people in my troop as many of them weren’t swimmers," he said. "It made me feel better that I was better at something than all the older guys that were ahead of me.

"It made me feel like I was one of them."

He started running when he was a student at Vienna Elementary School as his mother, Shannon, was a track coach then and he wanted to do it because of that.

"She put me in the long-distance events because no one else wanted to do those," he said with a laugh. "She just threw me in it.

"I was not very good in elementary school or in middle school until I reached 8th grade and then I began to take it more seriously."

He credits his track coaches at Jackson Middle School and PHS with developing into a better runner.

"They really helped me be the best I could be," George said.

His best time in cross country for the 5K is 15:38. He made All-State twice for cross country.

In track his best time for the 2-mile was 9:32.

George said running is something that can be done anytime anywhere.

"It clears your mind and you don’t have to think," he said. "You just put one foot in front of the other."

He has been recovering from a stress fracture that cut his senior-year track season short.

"I am slowly working my way up back to where I should be," he said of his plans to be running around 50-60 miles a week.

George has been working with his college coach to get ready for the upcoming fall cross-country season with workouts and other things to be ready to run this fall.

"I am really excited to go and compete again," he said.

George is not sure of what kind of business he eventually wants to run, but he is keeping his options open as changing times and changing markets will determine what he does.

"I am going to see what happens," he said. "I don’t have one idea set yet.

"I’m just waiting to see what I want to do."

For the past seven years, he has gone down to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and been involved in doing volunteer work with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Minor League Baseball Team.

His grandfather, Larry Kave, is a photographer for the team, which is the Single-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

"I am a huge Cubs fan," George said. "I love watching baseball.

"I go down there for 2-3 weeks every summer and volunteer with the team and help out."

He helped take pictures with his grandfather, he was a Carolina Cool Kid who would help out during games between each inning when there were fan activities on the field and sometimes would stand on the dugout and get everybody cheering. He would walk around with the mascots so fans could have their pictures taken with them and help them with autographs of the mascot. He also got to spend time with former Chicago Cubs player Ben Zobrist who was part of the team that won the World Series back in 2016 and was named the MVP for the series. He walked around and helped Zobrist meet and engage with fans as well as anything else he needed.

"Pretty much wherever they needed an extra hand is where I jumped in," George said. "I have helped keep the fans engaged."

He has also gone down every November for the last six years, the weekend before Thanksgiving to help his grandfather who is also the Market Commons Santa with his yearly "Santa Reveal" at a big town-wide event.

George's volunteer work with the team has definitely helped him get out of his comfort zone.

"I didn’t used to be good at talking to new people and interacting with them," he said. "Being there has brought me out and definitely made me more of a people person and be able to talk to new people."

George works part-time at the Tokyo Restaurant as a busboy and dishwasher since this past December, working 20-30 hours a week.

"It definitely has helped me with time management and how to manage money," he said. "It has also opened my eyes to different cultures and different ways of living."

Many of his co-workers are originally from Indonesia.

"It has opened my eyes to the real world," George said.

In high school, he was in the National Honor Society and T Club. He helped ring bells for the Salvation Army as well as volunteered at local elementary schools, including the Vienna Elementary Parent’s Night Out where they engaged with the kids with a variety of different activities as well as STEM Day, and the Social Studies Fair.

"I loved volunteering at Vienna Elementary School," George said. "That is where I went to school and I think it is really important to give back to those who put so much time and effort into me.

"I love going back being around the kids because they look up to us … we are role models and they want to be like us."

George will leave for college Aug. 6 with his first day of classes on Aug. 20. He will be going early for cross country practice and will be traveling to Black Bear Resort on a team trip where they will be running the trails around Blackwater Falls, Canaan Valley and Dolly Sods.

He is looking forward to getting started in the next chapter of his life and a new start in college.

"It is the independence, making new friends from around the world and running for one of the top Division 2 programs in the nation," he said.

His time running and with Scouts has taught him about perseverance and being able to see things through.

"It has helped me mature," George said. "It has helped me be more independent and helped me grow up."

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