Lake Park's Clark claims national honor

Tori Clark is living proof of the saying "no good deed goes unnoticed."

The Lake Park senior has been selected the 2010 national recipient of the National High School Spirit of Sport Award by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Clark, honored by the IHSA as Illinois' nominee for the award in February, will be recognized July 9 at the NFHS Summer Meeting in San Diego.

"I'm amazed. I don't even know how to put into words how I feel," Clark said. "When I won the state award I thought, 'I'm glad they recognized me,' that they thought what I did was inspirational and important. Honestly I didn't know how the whole national system worked."

Clark, who will attend Roosevelt University in Chicago this fall, has been a member of Lake Park's volleyball and basketball teams and previously played soccer.

Last October Clark read a story in the Daily Herald chronicling the plight of Neuqua Valley senior Nikki Federico and her mom, Christine, diagnosed in April 2009 with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a form of pre-leukemia. Inspired to aid a family she did not know personally outside the volleyball court, Clark organized a "Teams Helping Teams Night" Oct. 15 during Lake Park's home match with Neuqua in Roselle.

More than 600 orange T-shirts that read "Federico Family" on the front and "We Support You" on the back were sold and nearly $4,000 raised for the Federico family. Orange is the ribbon color for leukemia awareness.

"I've never been to San Diego before," Clark said. "It's exciting."