Happy Holidays!

yl an , T or i, J as mine & Blitz 2022

a of Matt, Krist y, Ca m er on , D
The Epic Sag

Blitz & Dylan Kristy & Matt Cameron & Riley

The Samuels Family definitely had a busy
year in 2022. The summer was full of
traveling from Houston to Gulf Shores
to San Francisco to Boston and beyond,
while the rest of the year was packed with
baseball, band, advocacy, high school
graduation and a college move-in.1
Cameron, 19, is loving freshman year at
Brandeis University in Boston, studying
politics, journalism and law.2 Cameron is
living the dorm life, enjoying the company
of girlfriend Riley and the colder weather.3
Cameron’s final months before graduating
high school were quite exciting. Cameron
Tori & Jasmine
won the School District’s top excellence
award, served as an editor of the school
newspaper and won the highest amount
of UIL awards in journalism.4
Cameron made a huge impact by leading
a national movement to fight back against
book bans by packing school board
meetings with supporters, distributing
nearly 1,000 books to students5 and
serving as the youth honorary chair of
the International Banned Books Week.
Cameron led a rally with hundreds of
people at the Texas state capitol and was
interviewed and featured on more than 100
news outlets. Cameron was also tweeted
about by President Barack Obama.6
All the hard work paid off as Cameron
earned the very prestigious Diller Teen
Award and was flown to San Francisco
to be honored with a $36,000 college
scholarship.7

1 - We spent one week waking up in three different time zones; 2 - Cameron is also working on a minor in Dunkin’ Donuts; 3 - Cameron is hoping to tell his grandkids one day,
“I literally walked through 6 feet of snow to go to school”; 4 - The Seven Lakes High School principal volunteered to be Cameron’s campaign manager/media relations coordinator;
5 - Our front porch became an overnight pop-up banned book distribution center; 6 - Fortunately, Cameron did not go viral on Parlor or Truth Social; 7 - That money would have
covered four years of tuition at most schools, but will pay for about a semester and a half at Brandeis.
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Dylan makes All-Reg

Cameron fighting ion
against book bans Band first chair
Matt, Dylan, Kristy, Cameron & Riley at Seven Lakes High School

Cameron also continues Kristy also continues her

to serve as the NFTY
North American Engage-
ment and Inclusion VP,
worked as a commu-
nications specialist at
URJ Sci-Tech Academy,
has had multiple paid
speaking engagements8
and serves as a weekly
online Hebrew tutor.
Cameron’s travels included Austin,
Baton Rouge, Florida, Washington DC,
Boston, San Francisco, Chicago,
Wisconsin and a road trip to Yellowstone.9
crochet projects, digital
scrapbooks, yoga and
has read more than 20
books since June.15
Matt continues helping
lead the JHV as a writer,
graphic designer and
social media creator. He
Matt, Kristy and Cameron at the college dropoff near Boston won more than 10 awards
in 2022 for news writing,
feature writing, page design and more.16
He also is enjoying what could be the final
year of coaching Dylan’s baseball team
before high school baseball next year.17

Dylan, 14, continues to excel on the As a couple, Kristy and Matt went to many
baseball field and in the Seven Lakes Broadway Shows, traveled to San Fran-
Junior High Honors Band. cisco and Boston with Cameron and Gulf
Shores and Greene Family Camp with
Dylan earned first chair in the entire Blitz, Matt, Dylan & Kristy on the baseball field Dylan. The family also traveled together
region in bass clarinet and performed as to Louisiana and Galveston Beach.18
part of the All-Region Honors Band. He
also chose to learn the flute with his sec- Blitz, 1, has been such a wonderful addition
ond elective, joining the Concert Band.10 to our family as a sweet, well-behaved
puppy.19 He loves playing with all the
When home, Dylan still dabbles in guitar neighbor dogs, walking around the lake,
and drums. He took a summer class at going to dog parks and swimming.
School of Rock, ending with an onstage
modern rock performance playing guitar Tori, 16, and Jasmine, 6, continue to love
with a full band at a local bar.11 having their new puppy brother. All three
animals play together during the day and
Dylan continued being a top player for his often sleep next to each other at night.20
travel baseball team, Katy Crush. He bats
third, plays first base and pitches.12 The Kristy & Matt prepare for a rain storm Plans for 2023 include Cameron
team went to Gulf Shores, Alabama over the saving the world, Dylan entering high
summer for a weeklong World Series event. Kristy continues to lead her work team as school and Kristy and Matt celebrating
a senior software developer for Anthology. their 20th Wedding Anniversary.21
Dylan also spent another three weeks She has filled her half-empty nest with
this summer at sleepaway Greene Family an amped up social schedule of catching We hope all of our family and friends had a
Camp, where he continues to enjoy and up with friends, book author talks, healthy and fun year, and we look forward
build lifelong friendships.13 quilting workshops and cooking classes.14 to seeing you along the trails of 2023.

Love to all, (in order of appearance) Matt, Kristy, Cameron, Tori, Dylan, Jasmine & Blitz
8 - You can book Cameron for your next birthday or Bar Mitzvah!; 9 - Cameron’s frequent flyer account was literally to the moon and back; 10 - Girls dig a guy who can play more
than one instrument; 11 - He rocked out playing Green Day and The Killers, while drinking a pint of Cream Soda between songs; 12 - Dylan had more hits and RBIs than MLB
super star Justin Verlander in 2022.; 13 - He also gets to meet a new summer girlfriend every year; 14 - She still has a few free minutes a week for Matt, but she did have to give up
her boyfriend.; 15 - She is trying to read as many books as she can before the government bans them all.; 16 - He also was nominated for ‘Most likely to take out the office trash.’;
17 - Once the players are taller and stronger than you, it is a good time to think about retiring from coaching.; 18 - The mucky brown gulf water at least keeps the sharks away;
19 - He either grew out of his puppy habits of chewing everything, or he ran out of things to chew.; 20 - With 2 adults, 1 dog and 2 cats in the bed, someone usually ends up on the
floor by morning; 21 - Oh snap. Please email Matt ideas to sportsrap@gmail.com.