WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Two Connecticut students, Jonathan Berman, 16, of Stamford and Alec Albright, 13, of Milford, were honored in the nation’s capital last night for their outstanding volunteer work during the presentation of The 2011 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. The two young people – along with 100 other top youth volunteers from across the country – received $1,000 awards as well as personal congratulations from Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon at the 16th annual award ceremony and gala dinner reception, held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Jonathan and Alec were named the top high school and middle level youth volunteers in Connecticut last February. In addition to their cash awards, they received engraved silver medallions and an all-expense-paid trip with their parents to Washington, D.C., for this week’s recognition events.
“The Prudential Spirit of Community honorees have seen problems in their communities and around the world and have taken action,” said Ms. Sarandon. “Their compassion to help others should give us all a lot of hope for the future.”
Jonathan, a junior at Westhill High School, founded a nonprofit organization with his brother six years ago to encourage local youth to get involved in community service by trick-or-treating for UNICEF, volunteering at a soup kitchen, and promoting UNICEF’s clean-water Tap Project. Jonathan started volunteering at the age of 3, working with his family once a month at the Stamford Soup Kitchen. Later, he began inviting other children and teens to join his family at the kitchen. In fifth grade, he saw a TV commercial about the Trick of Treat for UNICEF program, and decided to get his whole school involved. “I realized that this could be a great opportunity to teach Stamford children about charity and gratitude, while helping needy children all over the world,” he said.
Jonathan’s idea soon spread, and over the past seven years, thousands of students from more than a dozen Stamford-area schools have “trick-or-treated” for UNICEF on Halloween, raising more than $50,000 for programs that provide medicine, nutrition, shelter and clean water to needy children in 155 countries and territories around the world. Each year, Jonathan and fellow volunteers deliver information about the effort to principals, provide UNICEF collection boxes and other supplies, visit schools to talk to students, and pick up the donations after Halloween. They also put together a guide to help young people in other towns start their own UNICEF fund-raising. In addition, Jonathan organizes teen volunteers to prepare and serve lunch each month at the Stamford Soup Kitchen, and to promote the UNICEF Tap Project, which recruits restaurants to raise funds to provide children overseas with clean water.
Alec, an eighth-grader at St. Mary School, collects Halloween costumes for children whose families cannot afford to buy them. Alec came up with the idea while talking to a family friend who works for an affordable housing agency. She told him how lucky he was to be able to celebrate Halloween with nice costumes and decorations, noting that children in the families she works with do not have those things. “As we talked, I became sad that something so fun for me and so simple was not available to every child,” said Alec. “I have not always fully understood that poor people live in my community and that working families struggle to get ahead.” He offered to collect whatever costumes he could from his friends and family.
But he didn’t stop there. Alec asked his principal if he could solicit costume donations at school, and then distributed flyers to fellow students, set up a collection drop box, and hosted a table at a school open house. He sent e-mail appeals to relatives and neighbors, and requested costumes through his karate studio. Before long, “my house was filled with costumes!” he said. With help from his parents and siblings, he washed them, made repairs if necessary, and replaced missing parts. Then he organized and delivered them on racks so that children and their parents could easily make their selections. More than 100 inner-city kids have received costumes from Alec, and he vows to continue as long as he can. “I don’t know how else I might have done something as personally fulfilling,” he said. “The young people not only thanked me, they wanted to know more about me and I was sort of their hero. They treated me like I had done much more than I really did.”
“Jonathan and Alec represent young Americans who have a strong sense of community and who are dedicated to improving our neighborhoods, our nation and our world,” said John R. Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, Inc. “With great anticipation, we look forward to their future achievements as they continue to spread the spirit of community.”
More than 29,000 young people participated in the 2011 awards program last fall through schools, Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and affiliates of the Points of Light Institute’s HandsOn Network. The top middle level and high school applicants in each state were selected in February, and were flown to Washington this week with their parents for four days of special recognition events.
Conducted in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards were created 16 years ago by Prudential Financial to encourage youth volunteerism and to identify and reward young role models.
“The young women and men in America’s schools are nothing short of amazing, and nowhere is this more evident than amongst this year’s award recipients,” said NASSP President Jana Frieler. “They possess a keen intellect, servant hearts, capable leadership skills, and are filled with energy and ambition. NASSP and Prudential are honored to recognize them.”
More information about The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and this year’s honorees can be found at http://spirit.prudential.com or www.nassp.org/spirit.
NASSP is the leading organization of and national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and all school leaders from across the United States and more than 45 countries around the world. NASSP provides research-based professional development and resources, networking, and advocacy to build the capacity of middle level and high school leaders to continually improve student performance. Reflecting its longstanding commitment to student leadership development as well, NASSP administers the National Honor Society™, National Junior Honor Society®, National Elementary Honor Society®, and National Association of Student Councils®. For more information about NASSP, located in Reston, VA, visit www.nassp.org.
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds, investment management, and real estate services. In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit http://www.news.prudential.com/
[Editors: full-color pictures of the Spirit of Community Awards program logo and medallions are available at spirit.prudential.com.]
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