Spirited YOUTH
Prudential awards honor outstanding acts for community
Trennery Turner, 18, of Bloomfield and Lily Chacon, 12, of Holy Ghost Catholic School in Albuquerque have been selected as New Mexico’s top two youth volunteers of 2018 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts.
Each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an allexpense-paid trip in late April to Washington, D.C., where they will join honorees from other states for four days of national recognition events, organizers said in a news release.
A total of 10 students during that event will be chosen as America’s top youth volunteers of 2018.
“Prudential is proud to recognize these remarkable young people for using their energy, creativity and compassion to bring meaningful change to their communities,” said Prudential Chairman and CEO John Strangfeld in a prepared statement. “We hope their stories inspire others …”
Turner, a senior at Piedra Vista High School, which nominated her, has been a mentor to children in need for seven years, a classroom assistant for youngsters with disabilities, a teacher of healthy lifestyles and a volunteer at a local hospital, organizers said.
“The two distinct ‘cultures’ in our community are the proverbial ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ because poverty is an overwhelming burden in our area,” Turner said in a statement. “I know that fusing this gap is a daunting task, but I want to aid in the struggle against the growing chasm between human decency and human dignity.”
Turner said she has been inspired by her parents, both high school teachers whose “entire life mission is to empower young people.”
She began helping younger children from low-income families learn rodeo skills, such as horsemanship while in fifth grade. She volunteered as an assistant in the classroom for children with disabilities in middle school and two years ago, she became a “big sister” with Big Brothers Big Sisters of New Mexico.
Chacon, a seventhgrader at Holy Ghost Catholic School which nominated her, volunteers with other students at her school to help keep Albuquerque beautiful by working on cleanup and restoration projects in the Rio Grande bosque,
“Service has always motivated me, inspired me, and helped me come up with ideas for projects,” said Lily in a statement.
She said she knows what an asset the bosque is to Albuquerque, as a natural recreation area for residents and tourists and she personally looks forward to going there several times a year with her school to work on projects there.
Lily and her classmates have helped park rangers and city workers plant trees, clear trails, and pick up trash.
“Having friends to work with made the job seem a lot easier,” she said.
Chacon has helped plant more than 50 trees in the bosque, and still recalls the thrill she got when she planted her first one. “I felt as if I were going to reach the top of a mountain,” she said in a statement.
Judges with the 23-yearold Prudential Spirit of Community Awards also recognized two other New Mexico students as distinguished finalists for their impressive community service. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion.
They were Gabriela Baca, 17, of San Juan Pueblo, and Nam Nguyen, 18, of Albuquerque, a senior at St. Pius X High School.
Baca is a member of Rio Arriba 4-H and a senior at Los Alamos High School, and has volunteered more than 600 hours over the past two summers with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, working on ancient wall restoration and trail maintenance projects at Bandelier National Monument.
Nguyen played a key role on a team that created an e-book, lesson plans, and activities that teach English and math to orphaned children in Nigeria, as well as raising money for teacher training.
For more information visit spirit.prudential.com or www.nassp.org/spirit.