National Award Seeks Hawaiʻi’s Top Youth Volunteers

2019 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards Applications Now Online.

Photo: Courtesy of Prudential Financial

Do you know any local students in grades 5-12 who have positively impacted their communities through volunteer work within the past 12 months? Encourage them to apply for the 2019 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.

Applications are available at spirit.prudential.com and naasp.org/spirit

Here’s how it works:

• Students complete the online application by Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.
• Then, they submit the application for certification to their principal or head of a local participating organization.
• Certifiers review all applications for their school or organization. Certifiers can be a middle or high school principal, head of a Girl Scout council, county 4-H organization, American Red Cross chapter, YMCA, or an affiliate of Points of Light’s HandsOn Network.
• A local honoree is nominated for state-level judging by Friday, Nov. 16, 2018.
• On Saturday, Feb. 5, 2019, the top volunteer from a middle school and high school from each state and the District of Columbia will be named state honorees.

Hawaiʻi’s top volunteers for 2018 were Mahealani Sims-Tulba, 18, of Ewa Beach, founder of the nonprofit B.R.A.V.E. to stop bullying and improve self-esteem among students in Hawaiʻi. And Grace Kennedy, 14, of Kailua, a Kidz For A Cause board member who has raised thousands of dollars to help sick and abused children.

Read more about them at spirit.prudential.com/honorees/2018/hi.

For the 2019 awards, the top middle-school and high-school volunteer from each state will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., with a parent or guardian for four days of recognition events from May 4-7, 2019.

In Washington, a distinguished national selection committee will name 10 of the 102 state honorees as America’s top youth volunteers of the year. The honorees will receive additional awards of $5,000, gold medallions, crystal trophies for their nominating schools or organizations, and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit charitable organizations of their choice.

In addition, several distinguished finalists in each state will receive bronze medallions, and runners-up will receive certificates of excellence.

Local honorees selected by schools and participating organizations for state-level judging will be presented with certificates of achievement and the President’s Volunteer Service Awards if they have met the minimum number of volunteer hours to qualify (26 hours for age 10 and younger, 50 hours for ages 11 to 15, and 100 hours for older students).

The Prudential Spirit of Community awards is co-sponsored by Prudential Financial and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.