WASHINGTON, May 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- West Virginia's
top two youth volunteers of 2019, Quinn
Raffo, 15, of Craigsville
and Chloe Orecchio, 11, of
Weirton, were honored in the
nation's capital last night for their outstanding volunteer service
during the 24th annual presentation of The Prudential
Spirit of Community Awards. Quinn and Chloe – along with 100 other
top youth volunteers from across the country – received a
$1,000 award and personal
congratulations from award-winning actress Viola Davis at an award ceremony and gala dinner
reception held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural
History.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, sponsored by
Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association
of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), named Quinn and Chloe West Virginia's top high school
and middle level youth volunteers in February. In addition to their
cash awards, they each received an engraved silver medallion and an
all-expense-paid trip with a parent to Washington, D.C., for four days of recognition
events.
Quinn, a sophomore at Richwood High School, founded a summer
backpack food program that has provided more than 30,000 meals over
the past five years to students in her rural county who otherwise
would not have enough to eat when school is not in session. When
she was 10, Quinn had to fast for 24 hours before some medical
testing. "I'll admit, at first I thought it would be fun to only
eat jello and popsicles for an entire day," she said, "but I got
hungry really quickly and realized it was terrible. I had never
felt that type of hunger before." That made her think about the
kids at her school who would take "extras" home from lunch to keep
from going hungry. She knew she had to do something to help
them.
Quinn began volunteering at a food pantry and then learned that
her town did not have a program to feed hungry kids over the
summer. She researched how to start a backpack program, arranged to
use a church's community room, sent application forms to local
schools, and then set about raising money through grants and
fundraisers such as a car wash and a softball tournament. With
money in hand, Quinn sets a weekly budget, plans a menu, shops for
groceries, recruits volunteers to help assemble bags and delivers a
stuffed backpack to each student's house. Every child receives five
breakfasts and lunches and 10 snacks for 10 weeks during the
summer. Last year, Quinn had to quickly ramp up her program when
teachers in her district went out on strike. She pulled together
dozens of volunteers to provide meals to more than 750 kids during
the 10-day walkout. "It never gets old to be able to provide
something that you know people truly need," she said.
Chloe, a sixth-grader at St. Joseph The Worker School, organized
a monthly cleanup program to keep her school campus free of litter.
While riding to school every morning, Chloe began noticing litter
along the sides of the road and in the school yard. "All of the
trash on our campus made our community look very dismal," she said.
"I told my parents that someone should clean it up." After a few
days of complaining, Chloe's father asked her to come up with a
solution. She realized that "it is up to us kids to keep our
schools clean," and so she came up with a plan for "Chloe's Campus
Clean-Up."
She prepared a PowerPoint presentation to explain her plan to
the St. Joseph School Board, which approved it immediately. Then
she started recruiting fellow students to form a cleanup team and
gave them instructions on how she wanted to run the operation. The
first cleanup collected four garbage bags of trash from the grounds
of Chloe's elementary school and a high school and church across
the street. Chloe now schedules a cleanup on the third Saturday of
every month. "It has made a big difference on the campus," she said
proudly. "No litter to be found!"
"We're impressed and inspired by the way these honorees have
identified problems facing their communities and stepped up to the
challenge to make a difference," said Charles Lowrey, chairman and CEO of Prudential
Financial, Inc. "It's a privilege to celebrate their leadership and
compassion, and we look forward to seeing the great things they
accomplish in the future."
"These students have not only done important work in support of
people in need – they've also shown their peers that young people
can, and do, create meaningful change," said Christine Handy, president of NASSP. "We commend
each of these young volunteers for all they've contributed to their
communities."
Youth volunteers in grades 5-12 were invited to apply for 2019
Prudential Spirit of Community Awards last fall through schools,
Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross
chapters, YMCAs and affiliates of Points of Light's HandsOn Network. More than
29,000 middle level and high school students nationwide
participated in this year's program.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program was created in
1995 to identify and recognize young people for outstanding
volunteer service – and, in so doing, inspire others to volunteer,
too. In the past 24 years, the program has honored more than
125,000 young volunteers at the local, state and national
level.
For more information about The Prudential Spirit of
Community Awards and this year's
honorees, visit http://spirit.prudential.com
or www.nassp.org/spirit.
About NASSP
The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
is the leading organization of and voice for principals and other
school leaders across the United
States. NASSP seeks to transform education through school
leadership, recognizing that the fulfillment of each student's
potential relies on great leaders in every school committed to the
success of each student. Reflecting its long-standing commitment to
student leadership development, NASSP administers the National
Honor Society, National Junior Honor Society, National
Elementary Honor Society, and National Student Council. Learn
more at www.nassp.org.
About Prudential Financial
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 and investment management. 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 www.news.prudential.com.
Editors: For pictures of the Spirit
of Community Awards program logo and medallions, visit
https://spirit.prudential.com/resources/media.
For B-roll of West Virginia's honorees at the
2019 national recognition events, contact Prudential's
Harold Banks at (973) 216-4833
or harold.banks@prudential.com.
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SOURCE Prudential Financial, Inc.