Ten young Americans were selected in the 2008 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program for national recognition based on their outstanding achievements in community service. They were announced on May 5, 2008, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Building in Washington, D.C. The National Selection Committee that chose the National Honorees was co-chaired by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and Art Ryan, Chairman of Prudential Financial. Also serving on the committee were actor Richard Dreyfuss; Alma Powell, chair of America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth; Michelle Nunn, President and CEO of the Points of Light Foundation & Hands on Network; Amy B. Cohen, Director of Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National Service; Kathy Cloninger, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA; Donald T. Floyd Jr., President and CEO of National 4-H Council; Kathryn Forbes, National Chair of Volunteers, American Red Cross; Neil Nicoll, president and CEO of YMCA of the USA; Michael Cohen, president and CEO of Achieve, Inc.; Barry Stark, president of NASSP; and 2007 National Honorees Kelly Davis of West Bath, Maine and Kelydra Welcker of Parkersburg, West Virginia.
The 2008 National Honorees are:
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Jenna Machado, 17, of Boulder, Colo., a senior at Fairview High School, founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about depression and suicide prevention after a cousin took her own life. As Jenna grieved and struggled to understand why her cousin died, she realized that she might be able to help prevent others from suffering similar tragedies. “I want people to understand that they can always get help if they are having thoughts about suicide or feeling depressed,” she said.
With help from her parents and a local attorney, Jenna wrote a business plan and applied to form a nonprofit organization. She began holding weekly meetings with 10 friends to share information about depression and suicide, learn about suicide prevention, and plan fund-raising activities. For one of their fund-raisers, they collected clothing donations at nine local schools and throughout the community and then held two clothing sales, which brought in $5,000 and provided 86 treatment sessions at local therapy centers for depressed and suicidal teens who could not afford counseling. The group also has delivered six community presentations on the warning signs and risk factors of depression and suicide, and conducted a peer education program in 24 classrooms at middle and high schools in Boulder County. “There is a lot of work to be done regarding depression and suicide prevention,” said Jenna. “The only way we can overcome the stigma is to talk about it, understand it, address it, encourage treatment for depression, and show compassion for those who suffer.”
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Shanna Decker, 17, of Plainview, Minn., a senior at Plainview-Elgin-Millville High School, has made more than 600 visits to young cancer patients over the past nine years to give them hope and inspire them with her own cancer experience. When she was 7 years old, Shanna had her leg amputated and underwent a year of aggressive chemotherapy for bone cancer. “During this time, I made the decision to take a tragic situation in my life and somehow turn it into a positive experience,” she said. “Because I knew how hard it was to travel this lonely road alone, I was determined to make a difference in the lives of others.”
She asked her doctors if they could put her in touch with other young cancer patients, so that she could visit them. Since then, Shanna has devoted more than 300 hours a year to providing hope and support to children from around the world. “When a cancer survivor walks into the room, patients have a renewed sense of hope, their fears subside, smiles form, and a life-long bond is established,” she explained. During her visits, Shanna delivers “Hearts of Hope” boxes containing gifts and inspirational materials, along with a personal message and picture. She also shares her story as a guest speaker at numerous events, and has participated in fund-raising activities that have generated more than $120,000 to better the lives of those less fortunate.
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Kristen Allcorn, 18, of Sedalia, Mo., a senior at Smith-Cotton High School, founded The Community Café, a table-service soup kitchen that has served more than 12,000 meals to needy residents since December 2006. While volunteering several times at a soup kitchen in Kansas City, “I fell in love with the idea of helping others through serving food,” said Kristen. “It is such a practical way to meet the tangible needs of people.” She began looking for similar volunteer opportunities closer to home, but couldn’t find any program that offered a free hot meal to the needy on a consistent basis. So she decided to start her own.
First, Kristen persuaded a building owner in town to donate space for her café. She then worked closely with the Central Missouri Food Bank to secure a steady supply of food donations. Kristen recruited volunteers from her school’s National Honor Society chapter and local civic organizations to prepare and serve the meals, and to clean up afterwards. As executive director, Kristen organizes food donations, plans meals, schedules and directs volunteers, registers diners, serves food, handles a great deal of administrative paperwork, and runs monthly board meetings. Today, The Community Café provides a hot evening meal to about 60 people five days a week, serving them at tables as if they were eating in a restaurant. “I walk away from The Community Café everyday with a sense of accomplishment,” said Kristen.
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Kristin Brandt, 17, of Lock Haven, Pa., a senior at Central Mountain High School in Mill Hall, initiated a 16-month project to build a modular home and haul it 1,200 miles to Mississippi, where it was presented to an 80-year-old woman who had lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. After the storm receded, Kristin was impressed by all of the food, water, clothing and medical supplies that were being donated for the victims, but began to wonder about their long-term needs. “Where would all these people live after the television cameras and media saturation disappeared?” she asked. “It was then that I began to think how I could help make a difference.”
After obtaining approval from her school district, Kristin recruited a faculty advisor and formed a school club called “Homes of Hope.” She sent out nearly 1,000 letters soliciting help from every business, civic organization and religious group in her county, delivered speeches at community meetings, and caught the attention of local news media. As contributions began to trickle in, she organized a holiday concert, football ticket raffles, “Teacher Dress-Down Days,” and other fund-raising events.
With more than $20,000 in hand, as well as donated materials and services from many businesses, Kristin and her club’s vice president recruited 20 students from her school’s vocational program to help them construct a two-bedroom house on the high school grounds. When it was finished, a local company offered to transport the new home to Pass Christian, Miss. “We watched as this home was set on its new foundation,” said Kristin. “It was overwhelming to see the gratitude as I handed Mrs. Ashley the keys to her new home.”
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Kaylee Marie Radzyminski, 16, of Cleveland, Tenn., a junior at Cleveland High School, launched a CD and DVD collection campaign that has spread across the country and resulted in the shipment of more than 170,000 discs – worth over $2.5 million – to U.S. soldiers overseas. While Kaylee Marie was attending a Sea Cadet training program in 2005, she met military personnel who had just returned home, and she learned that what they missed most overseas was entertainment. “I began to brainstorm,” she said. “I first collected my CDs and DVDs, then my friends collected theirs, then my school, and it eventually made its way to the community, the state, and now it has become a nationwide campaign.”
Kaylee Marie has solicited donations by speaking at churches, schools and clubs, organizing collection drives and contacting local news media. Currently, her post office box receives about 2,000 CDs and DVDs each week. With her mother’s help, Kaylee Marie sorts, packs and ships out about 10 boxes every Saturday. In addition, more than 200 “satellite” locations across the U.S. – schools, churches, clubs, radio stations, Sea Cadet units and other organizations – have joined Kaylee Marie’s “Tunes 4 the Troops” campaign, collecting discs in their areas and shipping them directly to service personnel abroad. “I have always had a special place in my heart for the men and women who serve our country,” Kaylee said. “There is no reason why I can’t do a little something to give back.”
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Mark Rinkel, 12, of Aurora, Colo, a seventh-grader at Challenge School in Denver, raised more than $16,000 through lemonade sales and Internet solicitations to purchase and train medical service dogs for his little brother and other children suffering from type I diabetes. When Mark’s brother, Jason, was diagnosed with diabetes, their mother applied for a “diabetic alert dog” from an organization that trains dogs to detect abnormal blood sugar levels in diabetics. “When Jason was approved for a service dog,” said Mark, “I wanted to help him get the dog, and take the burden off my mom by raising the $6,000 towards the cost of training a dog.”
Mark designed and built a unique lemonade stand, researched lemonade recipes, and recruited friends and community members to help him sell fresh-squeezed lemonade (along with a sugar-free option) and distribute diabetes-awareness flyers at community events last summer, often in 100-degree heat. Mark also spent many hours constructing a Web site to spread the word about diabetes and solicit donations. So far, he has raised enough money not only to train Jason’s dog, but to provide dogs for other young diabetics as well. “I’ve had hundreds of e-mails from people who are struggling with the devastating effects of diabetes, who now know that a diabetic alert dog could save their life,” said Mark. “I once felt very helpless. By volunteering, I stopped feeling helpless.”
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Bria Brown, 13, of Miami Gardens, Fla., an eighth-grader at North Dade Middle School and a five-year cancer survivor, gives other young cancer patients hope and encouragement by delivering teddy bears to them in the hospital and at their homes. Bria was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer when she was 6. After her disease went into remission, she wanted to honor the memory of 17 fellow cancer patients she had met in the hospital who did not survive. She began volunteering for the American Cancer Society as honorary chair of the local Relay for Life fund-raiser, and as an advocate for cancer research. But she wanted to do more.
Recalling that many people had given her teddy bears while she was in the hospital, Bria began giving her bears to other children stricken with cancer. Then she recruited friends, classmates and her Girl Scout troop to help her conduct a teddy-bear drive in her community. Before she delivers her bears, she finds out a little about the recipients, and then personalizes her teddy bears for them. “The best part is that I get to spend time with each child after I deliver the bear,” said Bria. “This project is important because I have the ability to bring joy and hope to kids with cancer. My involvement will continue until there is a cure or until I leave this Earth.”
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Talia Leman, 13, of Waukee, Iowa, a seventh-grader at The Academy in Des Moines, founded an organization called “RandomKid” that seeks to educate, motivate and unify young people around the world to work on a broad spectrum of pressing needs. She began two years ago by encouraging kids in her area to trick-or-treat for coins instead of candy on Halloween, and donate the money to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. After her cause was publicized by a Midwest grocery chain, Iowa’s governor and NBC’s “The Today Show,” kids across the country reportedly raised millions of dollars for Katrina victims.
With the help of an adult adviser, Talia then established a nonprofit organization and created a Web site (www.randomkid.org) that solicits support from young people everywhere for projects such as selling kid-designed and -manufactured key chains to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, raising money to build a school in Cambodia, finding homes for stray pets, and collecting DVDs for soldiers overseas. One of Talia’s biggest current projects involves encouraging schools across the country to make and sell their own private-labeled bottled-water products to help fund clean-water technologies in distressed areas of the world. She’s also working on setting up a “mini-United Nations” made up of young delegates from around the world who work together to address global children’s issues. “If we want a better world, we need to know that the world does belong to us, and that we have the power to make it better,” said Talia.
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Riley Miller, 14, of Bowling Green, Ky., an eighth-grader at Drakes Creek Middle School, has raised $50,000 over the past three years for childhood cancer research by organizing a citywide day of lemonade sales. After Riley’s little brother lost his battle with leukemia, she “realized how important it is to make a difference in the short time we have here,” she said. While visiting her brother in the hospital, Riley had learned about another young cancer patient, Alex Scott, who founded Alex’s Lemonade Stands to raise money for pediatric cancer research. “I wished I could do something like that,” said Riley. “I really wanted to help these families and children.” So Riley decided to host an Alex Lemonade Stand and asked friends and business owners to help. She received so many offers that she was inspired to put up stands all over town and involve the whole community in her fund-raising project.
Riley set a date for her event, assigned stand locations to volunteers, contacted the news media, made signs and flyers, walked door-to-door to tell people about the sale, and secured supply donations. On Bowling Green’s third annual Alex’s Lemonade Stand Day last July, Riley managed 200 volunteers and 29 stands, collecting more than $19,000 and bringing her three-year total to $50,000. “It was a great day,” she said. “I have never felt such pride and sense of being as when I am working hard to help others.”
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Joey Rizzolo, 13, of Paramus, N.J., a seventh-grader at East Brook Middle School, organized a “Freedom Walk” in his town last September that drew more than 450 local residents to join in remembering the lives lost on 9/11 and thanking first responders, U.S. service members and veterans. Joey had been involved for several years in a program that sends “goody bags” to servicemen and women. When he heard about plans for a Freedom Walk in Washington, D.C., to honor 9/11 victims, he decided that one should take place in his town, too. “My town suffered great losses on September 11,” explained Joey. “Even though six years have passed, the hurt still lingers.”
After obtaining the approval of town and school officials, Joey recruited a faculty sponsor and student volunteers, and formed a committee to help him plan a school assembly, make presentations to other schools and community groups, find a location for the event and promote it. Joey and his committee also planned the program, rented tents and other equipment, arranged for food and refreshments, and raised more than $7,000 to defray costs. “It was an emotional and uplifting experience,” said Joey. “Over 450 people gathered together to remember, reflect and renew their commitment to freedom and the values that make America strong.”
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