AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Justin Churchman, 18, of El Paso and Sharon Li, 13, of Manvel today were named Texas' top two youth volunteers for 2011 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 16th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
Justin was nominated by Coronado High School in El Paso, and Sharon was nominated by Berry Miller Junior High School in Pearland. 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 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 2011 at that time.
Justin, a senior at Coronado High School, has raised more than $48,000 and recruited more than 75 volunteers to build 18 houses in Juarez, Mexico, despite the rampant drug wars that have frightened away many other American volunteers. When he was 12, Justin’s school organized the building of a home in Juarez through an organization called Casas por Cristo. “From El Paso, you look into Juarez and see miles of shacks made of tires, wood pallets and cardboard, housing thousands of poor,” said Justin. “When my school built for Casas, it changed my life.” For several years, Justin’s school continued to take volunteers over the border to build homes, but like many volunteer groups, stopped when the violence escalated. Justin, though, couldn’t stop. “I had already learned what it meant to provide shelter to someone who had none, and it became critical to me to continue," he said. So, in 2006 he put together his own team of volunteers to build a three-room house.
The biggest obstacle, according to Justin, was convincing adults that a teen could take on such a project. He spent five months planning and raising money. To raise funds, he made speeches and wrote letters, obtaining support from three companies and many individuals. He made lists of materials and supplies the team would need, got international permits for travel, purchased insurance, and handled the paperwork for the 30 volunteers he had recruited. That first year, his team built a house in three days. After that trip, Justin begged Casa to give him more responsibility. They made him a “junior intern,” and often call upon him to supervise roof building at its sites in Juarez. Moreover, he has continued to raise money for his own building projects; last year his team built six houses, achieving his goal of completing 18 houses by his 18th birthday. “I’m motivated by the look in the grateful father’s eyes when I hand him his first set of house keys, and by the mother who told me she’d be warm for the first time in nine years, and by the grown daughter who cried when she saw she had a real door – and that was before we told her it even locked,” said Justin.
Sharon, an eighth-grader at Berry Miller Junior High School, founded a nonprofit organization with her siblings that has collected more than $20,000 in cash and 5,000 donated books, articles of clothing, and shoes for young victims of natural disasters. When Sharon was 10, she and her family watched in horror the television reports of the devastation caused by an earthquake in Sichuan, China, where 90,000 perished. “I felt so heartbroken for the children there and thought about how horrible it was,” Sharon said. At the time she had just started a newspaper club at school, so she and her sister and brother came up with the idea of publishing a newsletter about the earthquake to raise awareness and donations.
Sharon and her siblings distributed their newsletter door-to-door and were so encouraged by initial donations that they began making presentations to local organizations to raise funds. When they had collected $6,000, their parents took them to China to visit the earthquake site and deliver the donations to five children who had been hit particularly hard by the earthquake. “They had lost their homes and even lost family members and relatives,” said Sharon. “It hurt my heart to see them.” Later, when Hurricane Ike hit Galveston, they employed the same tactics and delivered a vanload of books, clothing and other items to two elementary schools there. They also began building a network of people to help them provide relief to disaster victims around the world (they now have 80 “team leaders” in four countries), and obtained grants to support their projects. In addition, Sharon writes a weekly blog to encourage young people to volunteer, and is working on a book with young Chinese victims of the earthquake. “One person might be small, but when we work together, we are a whole generation that will be a force for whatever we want to be,” said Sharon.
In addition, the program judges recognized 10 other Texas students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion:
Zoe Albert, 16, of Allen, a sophomore at Allen High School and an aspiring veterinarian, has raised nearly $13,000 to benefit animal advocacy groups by operating a charity business called “Faux Paws.” Zoe, who created “Faux Paws” when she was only 11 years old, sells her homemade faux fur flip-flops through a website she created and in local boutiques.
Jack Barker, 13, of Coppell, a seventh-grader at Coppell Middle School West, created “Jack’s Closet” and filled it with “snuggie” blankets that he has distributed to more than 500 children battling cancer. Jack, who has struggled with T-cell ALL leukemia and was very cold during the treatments, used money raised by his school to support the project, and also secured a donation from the manufacturer of the "Snuggie."
Lauren Bothwell, 18, of Harlingen, a senior at Harlingen High School South, created “Lauren’s Toy Box” when she was only 7 years old and has collected and distributed thousands of toys for pediatric patients at the Valley Baptist Medical Center. Lauren, who visited the hospital often with her physician father and was motivated by the sick children she saw, hosts a community toy drive every year in order to provide a toy to every child who is a patient at the hospital.
Nichole Davidson, 18, of Odessa, a senior at Permian High School in Ector, raised $60,000 to help build a high school in Kenya by coordinating "Friday Night Hope," a special football game between her school and a rival school. Nichole, who saw the desperate need for education during a visit to Africa, hopes to make the event an annual one so she can continue to help build schools in Africa.
Colman Flemons, 17, of Lake Jackson, a senior at Brazoswood High School in Clute, was only 12 years old when he started an organization called “Out of Bounds,” which collects and distributes soccer balls, air pumps, jerseys and basketballs to children in third-world countries. Colman, whose program is sponsored through the national charity “World Vision,” hosts a ball drive annually and has gone to Africa to deliver the sports equipment to very grateful children.
Blue Hybner, 18, of Shiner, a senior at St. Paul High School, took a leadership role in the $1.5 million restoration of an historic convent in Shiner. Blue has worked with the parish administrators and architects to coordinate the project since it started in 2007, and helped to write comprehensive grant applications to receive the proper funding for the restoration.
Tess Michaels, 17, of Plano, a senior at Plano West Senior High School, is the co-founder and president of the American Red Cross Club at her school. Tess, who is also the president of her science club and involved in medical research, leads 200 student members in various activities including fund-raising, leadership training, and disaster relief.
Alexis Pala, 17, of San Antonio, a senior at Winston Churchill High School, has hosted a Christmas party annually since she was 11 years old for the St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home. Each year, Alexis gathers family and friends to help collect cash donations and gently used clothes, purchase gifts and food, wrap gifts, and plan party games for the celebration.
Vivian Tang, 18, of Sugar Land, a senior at William P. Clements High School, founded the Sugar Land chapter of Givology, a 30-member local group of the national nonprofit organization that raises funds to support education for needy children. Vivian, who started working with Givology in 2009, has raised nearly $1,000 through various events and has also collected books and school supplies for poverty-stricken children in Haiti, China and Africa.
Haley Whatley, 16, of North Richland Hills, a sophomore at Birdville High School, was only 5 years old when she initiated a stuffed animal drive for pediatric patients at Cook Children’s Medical Center. Haley, who has distributed more than 20,000 stuffed animals over the past 11 years, also coordinated a Celebrity Waiter Dinner to raise more than $5,300 for the hospital’s Pastoral Care Department.
“These award recipients have proven that young people across America are critical to the future of our neighborhoods, our nation, and our world,” said John R. Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial. “Each and every one of these honorees deserve our respect and admiration, and we hope by shining a light on them, they will continue to serve as an example for others.”
“The young people recognized by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards demonstrate an enormous capacity for giving and reaching out to those in need,” said Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “NASSP is proud to honor these student leaders because they are wonderful examples of the high caliber of young people in our nation’s schools today.”
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 affiliates of HandsOn Network, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award this past November. More than 5,000 Local Honorees were then reviewed by an independent judging panel, which 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 2 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.
Serving on the national selection committee will be John Strangfeld of Prudential; Jana Frieler, president of NASSP; Michelle Nunn, president and CEO of the Points of Light Institute & Hands On Network; Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO of the America’s Promise Alliance; Donald T. Floyd Jr., president and CEO of National 4-H Council; Pamela Farr, the American Red Cross’ national chair of volunteers; Elson Nash, associate director for project management at the Corporation for National and Community Service; Michael Cohen, president and CEO of Achieve, Inc.; and two 2010 Prudential Spirit of Community National Honorees: Shannon McNamara of Basking Ridge, N.J., and Benjamin Sater of Plano, Texas.
In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program will be distributing President’s Volunteer Service Awards to more than 2,800 of its Local Honorees this year on behalf of President Barack Obama. 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. Since the program began in 1995, more than 95,000 young volunteers nationwide have been honored at the local, state or national level. Many prominent public figures have assisted in saluting these honorees over the years, including Jimmy Carter, Barbara Bush, Magic Johnson, John Glenn, Madeleine Albright, Rudy Giuliani, Whoopi Goldberg, Colin Powell, Peyton Manning, Laura Bush, and Condoleezza Rice. The program also is conducted by Prudential subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Ireland and India.
For information on all of this year’s Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit spirit.prudential.com or www.nassp.org/spirit.
In existence since 1916, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is the preeminent organization of and national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and aspiring school leaders from across the United States and more than 45 countries around the world. NASSP’s mission is to promote excellence in school leadership. The National Honor Society ®, National Junior Honor Society ®, National Elementary Honor Society™, and National Association of Student Councils ® are all NASSP programs. For more information about NASSP, located in Reston, Va., visit www.nassp.org or call 703-860-0200.
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Editors: Graphics depicting the award program’s logo and medallions may be downloaded from spirit.prudential.com.