10-14-2010, 09:11 AM
photo of Zahra at Camp Quality in Australia.
HICKORY Daily Record (very slow local NC paper) --
The disappearance of Zahra Clare Baker has devastated her family and friends in Australia.
The Townsville Bulletin, a newspaper published near Zahra’s former home in Giru, Queensland, reports Zahra’s grandmother, Karen Baker, and close family friend, Kim Wright, “spent many an hour with the bubbly Wagga-born girl in the four years she was growing up in Giru,” the Bulletin reported.
Queesnland is a large state in the northeastern part of Australia.
“She was the most determined little girl I have ever met,” Wright said.
“She was going to still do everything she could, despite not having her leg or her hearing. People say she has had a rough trot, but she never believed that for a second.”
“We are just stunned and shocked and so upset about what has happened,” Karen Baker, who lives in Newcastle, said.
“There is nothing we can do from here. We feel so helpless. We have friends who live over there who work in the trucking industry, and they have got all their mates to put out the alert that Zahra is missing through their CB systems, so hopefully there will be someone who has seen something. We want our darling girl back safe and sound,” Baker said.
The Bulletin and other news sources reveal a child who was shy, but always smiling in spite of her serious health problems.
Zahra was unable to attend school for a year because of the cancer.
Her friends in the community and the Giru State School raised enough money to buy her a laptop computer and educational software so she could keep up with her studies.
Wright met Zahra during a fundraising drive. Wright also worked with Zahra’s father, Adam, and her grandfather, Tony, at Invicta Sugar Mill.
Wright described Zahra as “determined and positive.”
Giru is near Townsville and has a population of 375.
She and her father lived with her grandparents. Family members say Zahra’s mother had little contact with her since she was eight months old.
Zahra also won the hearts of soldiers at Camp Quality in September of 2008 when she and 30 other North Queensland children and their companions were guests at the camp of Lavarack Barracks, Townsville.
HICKORY Daily Record (very slow local NC paper) --
The disappearance of Zahra Clare Baker has devastated her family and friends in Australia.
The Townsville Bulletin, a newspaper published near Zahra’s former home in Giru, Queensland, reports Zahra’s grandmother, Karen Baker, and close family friend, Kim Wright, “spent many an hour with the bubbly Wagga-born girl in the four years she was growing up in Giru,” the Bulletin reported.
Queesnland is a large state in the northeastern part of Australia.
“She was the most determined little girl I have ever met,” Wright said.
“She was going to still do everything she could, despite not having her leg or her hearing. People say she has had a rough trot, but she never believed that for a second.”
“We are just stunned and shocked and so upset about what has happened,” Karen Baker, who lives in Newcastle, said.
“There is nothing we can do from here. We feel so helpless. We have friends who live over there who work in the trucking industry, and they have got all their mates to put out the alert that Zahra is missing through their CB systems, so hopefully there will be someone who has seen something. We want our darling girl back safe and sound,” Baker said.
The Bulletin and other news sources reveal a child who was shy, but always smiling in spite of her serious health problems.
Zahra was unable to attend school for a year because of the cancer.
Her friends in the community and the Giru State School raised enough money to buy her a laptop computer and educational software so she could keep up with her studies.
Wright met Zahra during a fundraising drive. Wright also worked with Zahra’s father, Adam, and her grandfather, Tony, at Invicta Sugar Mill.
Wright described Zahra as “determined and positive.”
Giru is near Townsville and has a population of 375.
She and her father lived with her grandparents. Family members say Zahra’s mother had little contact with her since she was eight months old.
Zahra also won the hearts of soldiers at Camp Quality in September of 2008 when she and 30 other North Queensland children and their companions were guests at the camp of Lavarack Barracks, Townsville.