Haymarket teen dies in skiing accident

Brenda Shire said that her son’s friends will remember a well-traveled boy who liked to read.

Patrick Shire, 13, of the Haymarket area, died in a skiing accident Saturday afternoon at the Ski Denton resort near Coudersport, Penn., when he left the trail and hit a tree.

“Apparently it was at the end of the day on the last run, they were coming in and he hit a patch of ice,” Brenda Shire said. “According to the investigation, it was just a freak accident.”

Patrick, a National Junior Honor Society member, was an eighth-grader at Bull Run Middle School and a Tae Kwon Do student at the Black Belt Academy in Dominion Valley, Brenda Shire said.

Natalie Kiddie, of the Black Belt Academy, said Patrick’s friends at the academy will remember him as “the sweetest kid in the room.”

“He was always there to help other kids when they needed help. He was the most polite young man you would ever want to meet,” Kiddie said.

Brenda Shire said skiing was Patrick’s “passion” and he had been skiing since he was 4 1/2 years old.

He recently joined the Round Top Racing Team after spending three years on the Liberty Mountain Racing Team.

“He always had his proper equipment on. He was a safe skier. He never skied out of control,” Brenda Shire said.

The Potter County coroner, in north-central Pennsylvania, said Patrick Shire died of blunt force trauma and ruled the death an accident, the Associated Press reported.

Brenda Shire said Patrick loved to travel and loved “seeing new places and doing different things.”

“He was very well-traveled around the United States and several countries around the world,” she said.

A memorial trust has been set up in Patrick’s name in care of the Bank of America, Gainesville Branch, at 14572 Lee Highway, Gainesville, 20155.

“The proceeds from this are going to be used for donations to the Bull Run Middle School library in his honor,” Brenda Shire said. “He used to go to the library every day on his lunch hour and was annoyed if they didn’t have the most up-to-date books, and he would have to go to Borders to purchase them.”

Patrick’s viewing will be at Pierce Funeral Home at 9609 Center St. in Manassas from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday. The service will be at the funeral home at 11 a.m. Friday.

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.