(JustPatriots.com)- Back in 2009, 11-year-old student reporter Damon Weaver got the opportunity of a lifetime when he was invited to the White House to conduct an interview with then President Barack Obama.
Damon’s ten minute interview with the former President generated so much praise and media attention that it catapulted the young elementary schooler to instant fame.
After landing that journalistic coup at the White House, young Damon went on to interview such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey as well as athletes including Miami Heat basketball star Dwyane Wade.
“Dwyane Wade was impressive and he gave me good advice,” Weaver said in a 2015 interview with the Palm Beach Post. “He told me to stick with my dreams. And he told me that I’m a ‘cool’ person.”
After graduating from Royal Palm Beach High School in Florida, Weaver received a scholarship to Albany State University in Georgia where he was pursuing a degree in communications in hopes of one day becoming a sports reporter.
But his dream was cut short on Saturday May 1 when, at age 23, Damon Weaver unexpectedly died of what his family said were natural causes.
“A lot of people looked up to him,” Weaver’s sister Candace Hardy told the Palm Beach Post. “With him being so young, he made a way for more students to engage in journalism.”
Hardy described Weaver’s interview with Obama as “a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
“That’s the only way to describe it,” she said.
Weaver began his young journalism career when he volunteered for the school newscast at K.E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary school in the rural community along Lake Okeechobee.
“Damon was the kid who ran after me in the hall to tell me he was interested,” said his former teacher Brian Zimmerman. “And right away, I just saw the potential for the way he was on camera. You could see his personality come through. He wasn’t nervous being on camera.”
Watch Damon’s August 2009 interview with Barack Obama:
As yet, former President Obama has not released a statement commenting on Damon Weaver’s untimely death.
