Kentucky's Top Two Youth Volunteers Selected in 14^th Annual National Awards Program

FRANKFORT, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jordan Campbell, 17, of Jeffersonville and Meg Olash, 13, of Louisville today were named Kentucky's top two youth volunteers for 2009 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 14th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

Jordan was nominated by Montgomery County High School in Mount Sterling, and Meg was nominated by St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in Louisville. 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 2009 at that time.

Jordan, a senior at Montgomery County High School, created a student-run nonprofit theatre company to give children in his community the chance to participate in musical theatre. “Throughout life, theatre’s been a focus that got me through hard times,” said Jordan. “I believed children in my community needed the same opportunity to experience the magic of theatre and music.” Jordan, who has been an actor, singer, and dancer, also wanted to gain experience in theatrical direction and knew he’d have to start his own company to do that.

So two years ago, Jordan gathered a group of interested friends and invited the local arts council director to join them in weekly meetings to flesh out a plan. Soon after, Jordan held auditions and took the helm as director of the first show. He scheduled rehearsals in a local church, obtained donations of money and materials from businesses, garnered publicity from news media, conducted training classes for cast members, and handled all of the administrative details. Jordan’s first two productions sold more than 1,200 tickets, and involved 85 elementary students – including several with special needs – and 15 teen directors. He also has organized service projects for the participants, established a scholarship program for his directors, and planned a fund-raiser to give back to a supportive community. “These experiences have made me realize why I love theatre so much,” said Jordan.

Meg, an eighth-grader at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, assembled groups of volunteers to help local refugees grow, harvest and sell garden vegetables, and to entertain and supervise refugee children at a local community center. When Meg heard in class that a local community center’s plans for an Urban Gardens project might fall through due to a shortage of volunteers, “I could see right away there were many places where I could help, especially if I could get other teens to help, too,” she said.

Meg met with the director of the community center, and before long, she was recruiting two teams of students to join her. She assigned one team to help refugee gardeners plant, weed and harvest vegetables on their small garden plots; and the other to assist the refugees in marketing their produce. To facilitate the marketing, Meg got permission from her church to host a farmer’s market on the church lawn every Sunday for three months. Also, during the summer, Meg and her fellow volunteers spent three days a week at an understaffed refugee community center, playing with the children there and assisting staff members. “Volunteering is a sacrifice of time and energy,” said Meg, “but it is the type of sacrifice which pays you back in ways you can never imagine.”

In addition, the program judges recognized four other Kentucky students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion:

Don Combs, 18, of Pikeville, a senior at Pikeville High School, created a recycling program encompassing all five schools in Pike County. After obtaining the approval of the school district’s superintendent and principals, Don recruited sponsors in the schools, secured a grant to buy materials, set up collection sites at each school, and arranged for the county to transport the recyclables to a recycling center.

Emily Goldstein, 18, of Louisville, a senior at Atherton High School, has devoted more than 1,000 hours of volunteer time to protecting the environment. She has started recycling programs at 12 local companies and donated the proceeds to the Louisville Zoo, created a website about climate change (www.louisvillezoo.org/projectpolarbear), given lectures to community and school groups about global warming, and served as a member of the teen advisory panel for the National Environmental Education Foundation.

Arooshi Kumar, 18, of Louisville, a senior at Dupont Manual High School, has raised nearly $5,000 to help establish schools for impoverished children in India. Arooshi made and sold jewelry, cashmere stoles and Indian tunics, and donated the proceeds to the Sunkalp organization in India.

Elizabeth Moore, 17, of Catlettsburg, a senior at Fairview High School in Ashland, created a Spanish section in the library of Hatcher Elementary School, which has the largest number of Spanish-speaking students in the district. Elizabeth raised nearly $1,200 by organizing a community garage and bake sale and selling raffle tickets, and then purchased 77 Spanish-language books paired with 77 English-language versions of the same titles.

“The recipients of these awards vividly demonstrate that young people across America are making remarkable contributions to the health and vitality of their communities,” said John R. Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial. “They truly deserve all of the praise and encouragement we can give them.”

“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 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 4 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; Larry Bradley, president of NASSP; Michelle Nunn, president and CEO of the Points of Light & Hands On Network; Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO of the America’s Promise Alliance; Kathy Cloninger, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA; Donald T. Floyd Jr., president and CEO of National 4-H Council; Pam 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 2008 Prudential Spirit of Community National Honorees: Kristen Allcorn of Sedalia, Mo., and Shanna Decker of Plainview, Minn.

In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program will be distributing President’s Volunteer Service Awards to nearly 3,100 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 Institute; a free booklet of volunteer ideas for young people offered through the Federal Citizen Information Center; and a website featuring profiles of outstanding youth volunteers, volunteer tips and project ideas for students, an electronic newspaper on youth volunteerism, and more (spirit.prudential.com). 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 spirit.prudential.com or www.principals.org/prudential.

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.principals.org or call 703-860-0200.

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 approximately 50 million 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 http://www.news.prudential.com/.

Editors: Graphics depicting the award program’s logo and medallions may be downloaded from spirit.prudential.com.