It’s recess at Rice Lake Elementary in Maple Grove and Artem Fedorenko, 10, heads to grab his coat from his locker.
“Zip?” he asks a classmate.
The fellow fourth grade student helps Artem put his arm through the sleeve and zips his coat up. Together, they head outside, where Artem excels in a game of soccer, confidently declaring himself team captain despite the challenges he has faced in the past two years since Russia invaded his home country of Ukraine.
Artem is missing his left arm, an injury from a bomb. He came to Minnesota with his mother to receive a prosthetic in late 2022.
