LITTLE ROCK — The deadline to submit entries for the 2012 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards youth volunteers is Tuesday.
The two most outstanding youth volunteers from each state become state honorees and receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in May for an awards ceremony. Ten state honorees become “America’s Top Youth Volunteers.” These five middle and five high school students then receive an additional $5,000, a gold medallion and a crystal trophy.
Last year’s Arkansas winners were Abigail Gates, then 18, of Clinton, and Leyton Gassaway, then 12, of Paragould. Gates, then a senior at Clinton High School, founded an annual equestrian event inher county that raised more than $20,000 for the American Cancer Society in its first two years.
Gassaway, then a seventhgrader at Crowley’s Ridge Academy, designed a 2.2-mile “history trail” along the sidewalks of her town that tells the story of its rich and diverse past through a brochure and building plaques.
Information about the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards is online at www.prudential.com/community/spirit and at middle and high schools, Girl Scout councils and county 4-H offices throughout the U.S.
Interested students can access the application by visiting the Prudential Spirit website or by calling (888) 450-9961.
Arkansas, Pages 18 on 10/30/2011