Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Students honored for community service
30 district students received the Spellman Humanitarian Award
WEST GOSHEN >> Thirty West Chester Area School District seniors were recognized for volunteering their time and selflessly giving back to the community.
The West Chester Area Education Association, along with the district, presented the 19th Annual 2017 Spellman Humanitarian Awards, at Fugett Middle School, on Wednesday.
Students from Rustin, East and Henderson high schools were lauded for what Michele Curay Cramer, president of the education association, said was “service and a dedication to others.”
Superintendent James Scanlon said the award ceremony is a special time of the year. The ceremony kicks off the farewell tour for graduating seniors.
“Service sometimes gets left behind,” Scanlon said. “It’s important to give back and learn to give back.”
West Chester East senior Matthew Cote volunteers Saturday mornings at the West Chester Area Senior Center-run book store, Second Reading II.
For more than 1,100 volunteer hours, he has maintained the bookstore by shelving books, sorting donations, marketing store sales and helping patrons find that right book at a bargain price.
Dr. Sara Missett, director of secondary education, presented the award to Cote. She said Cote
believes in a simple motto:
“Reading is a fundamental part of life because it can empower people to make change as well as teach young minds the value of learning.”
“I wanted to volunteer — I was too young to have a job — but it turned into so much more,” Cote said.
Mother Linda Cote smiled when she said her son enjoyed eating lunch with the all-female senior citizen staff at the bookstore.
“We’re proud of his commitment to helping seniors through the bookstore,” Linda Cote said. “He has helped unload books, every Saturday morning, four hours per day, for the past five years.”
Cote hasn’t yet decided on a college. He is considering West Chester University or Sarah Lawrence College and wants to become a psychologist and guidance counselor.
East student Sera McClintock is a graduating senior who “is empathetic to the needs of so many lives in her community and selflessly gives her time in small and large ways,” Missett said.
For 10 years, McClintock has worked with Camp Out for Hunger collecting non-perishable food and monetary donations for Philabundance.
In 2015 she collected 880 pounds of food, or the equivalent of 880 meals.
During middle school, she first volunteered for the Chester County Food Bank.
Instead of personal birthday and holiday gifts, McClintock solicits donations for the hungry.
McClintock is headed for either Juniata or McDaniel colleges and seeks a degree in museum studies.
School Board member Sue Tiernan talked about her father, Dr. Elwood M. Spellman (best known as “Ossie.”)
Spellman was a school board member and president from 1951 to 1969. The district’s administration building is named after him.
Spellman was a dentist. He was active in the Boy Scouts, Rotary Club, YMCA and West Minister Presbyterian Church. He died in 1993 at the age of 77.
“He had a life full of turns, but he had a wonderful life,” Tiernan told the recipients. “Embrace your opportunities. Nothing would have made dad prouder or happier than to see this gathering in his honor.”