Minnesota’s Top Two Youth Volunteers Selected in 13th Annual National Awards Program
Shanna Decker, 17, of Plainview and Gabrielle Thompson, 13, of Buffalo today were named Minnesota’s top two youth volunteers for 2008 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 13th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
Shanna was nominated by Plainview-Elgin-Millville High School in Plainview, and Gabrielle was nominated by Buffalo Community Middle School in Buffalo. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees — one middle level and one high school youth — from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America’s top youth volunteers for 2008 at that time.
Shanna, a senior at Plainview-Elgin-Millville High School, has visited more than 600 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.
Gabrielle, a seventh-grader at Buffalo Community Middle School, raised $5,000 for cancer research by selling luminaries at her school, and has written a book about coping with childhood cancer. “How did I become involved?” asked Gabrielle. “Cancer involved me.” When she was 4 years old, doctors operated to remove a malignant tumor from her abdomen. After she recovered, she said, “I wanted to do all that I could to help raise awareness of cancer.”
So she devised a plan to sell luminaries at her school to honor cancer patients, to raise money for research, and to draw attention to Buffalo’s Relay for Life fund-raising event. She also began writing the “ABCs of Childhood Cancer,” which takes readers through the alphabet to explain the various experiences a cancer patient can expect, such as “crying” for the letter C. “The most memorable part of this has been seeing the smiles and glimmer in the eyes of cancer patients when they tell me I have given them hope to keep going, or the look on parents’ faces when they say they have more hope that their child will make it.”
In addition, the program judges recognized six other Minnesota students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion:
Daniel Chahla, 17, of St. Paul, a senior at Central High School, created a low-cost computer technical support service and donated all of the proceeds — $13,000 so far — to a nonprofit organization that supports refugees around the world. Daniel, whose parents were refugees from Lebanon, uses a self-built Web site (www.firstvm.com) to promote his service and schedule appointments.
Carly Fischbeck, 17, of Inver Grove Heights, a senior at Simley High School, has been knitting hats and scarves for hospitalized children and chemotherapy patients for the past four years. Inspired by her aunt’s battle with breast cancer, Carly uses yarn that is donated or purchased with her babysitting money, recruits family members and other volunteers to help her make the hats and scarves, and delivers the finished products to local hospitals.
Joshua Hiben, 17, of Bloomington, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School, is president of a service club at his high school, and is leading a team that is making a motivational youth-driven film for Habitat for Humanity. He also leads a team that volunteers every week at a center for battered women and children.
Carissa Loehr, 18, of Eagan, a senior at Eagan High School, is an active volunteer at the Minnesota Children’s Museum, and has created two programs to recruit other young people as museum volunteers. In addition to running museum programs for children, Carissa created and leads training programs for staff and incoming volunteers.
Laura Maciosek, 18, of Minneapolis, a senior at the Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, is a volunteer with “Amigos de Las Americas,” where she tutors Spanish-speaking adults in English. In addition, she spent six weeks last summer in Nicaragua, where she taught classes on health and hygiene, and helped build a volleyball court so young people could engage in health and fun activities and avoid drugs.
Aisha Moghul, 16, of Fridley, a junior at Columbia Heights High School in Columbia Heights, delivers a broad range of volunteer services in her community, including tutoring teens in Spanish, helping out in the surgical unit of a local hospital, and volunteering at a private school.
“Over the past 13 years, we’ve seen an incredible number of young Americans who have selflessly devoted their time and energy to helping others in their communities,” said Arthur F. Ryan, chairman of Prudential Financial. “The volunteer work of this year’s honorees is as inspiring as any we’ve seen, and we are honored to recognize the amazing contributions they’ve made to their neighborhoods, cities and nation.”
“Congratulations to this year’s state winners in The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards,” stated Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “The hard work and determination that these students have exhibited in trying to make a difference in the lives of others is remarkable.”
All public and private middle level and high schools in the country, as well as all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and Volunteer Centers, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award this past November. Nearly 4,500 Local Honorees were then reviewed by state-level judges, who selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth.
While in Washington, D.C., the 102 State Honorees will tour the capital’s landmarks, attend a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill. In addition, 10 of them — five middle level and five high school students — will be named National Honorees on May 5 by a prestigious national selection committee. These honorees will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies, and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit, charitable organizations of their choice.
Co-chairing the national selection committee will be U.S. Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and Arthur Ryan of Prudential. Also serving on the committee will be actor Richard Dreyfuss; Alma Powell, chair of America’s Promise — The Alliance for Youth; Michelle Nunn, president and CEO of the Points of Light & Hands On Network; Amy B. Cohen, director of Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National and Community 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, CEO of YMCA of the USA; Michael Cohen, president and CEO of Achieve, Inc.; Barry Stark, president of NASSP; and two 2007 Prudential Spirit of Community National Honorees: Kelly Davis of West Bath, Maine, and Kelydra Welcker of Parkersburg, W.Va.
In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program will be distributing President’s Volunteer Service Awards to nearly 2,800 of its Local Honorees this year on behalf of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represent the United States’ largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service. The program is part of a broad youth-service initiative by Prudential that includes a youth leadership training program administered by the Points of Light & Hands On Network; a free booklet of volunteer ideas for young people offered through the Federal Citizen Information Center; and a Web site featuring profiles of outstanding youth volunteers, volunteer tips and project ideas for students, an electronic newspaper on youth volunteerism, and more (www.prudential.com/spirit). The Spirit of Community Awards program also is conducted by Prudential subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Ireland.
For information on all of this year’s Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit www.prudential.com/spirit, or www.principals.org/prudential.
NASSP is the preeminent organization and the national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals and aspiring school leaders. NASSP provides its members the professional resources to serve as visionary leaders. NASSP promotes the intellectual growth, academic achievement, character development, leadership development, and physical well-being of youth through its programs and student leadership services. NASSP administers the National Honor Society™, the National Junior Honor Society™ and the National Association of Student Councils™.
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU), a financial services leader, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Leveraging its heritage of life insurance and asset management expertise, Prudential is focused on helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth. The company’s well-known Rock symbol is an icon of strength, stability, expertise and innovation that has stood the test of time. Prudential’s businesses offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds, investment management, and real estate services. For more information, please visit www.prudential.com.
Editors: Graphics depicting the award program’s logo and medallions may be downloaded from www.prudential.com/spirit.