Leading up to National Volunteer Week we at Points of Light want to celebrate volunteers who are doing remarkable things all over the country! Today we highlight honorees from The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. They represent the United States’ largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service.  Each year, the program’s judges select 102 State Honorees – two from each state and the District of Columbia – to receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. where the students will tour the capital’s landmarks, attend a gala awards ceremony, and visit congressional representatives on Capitol Hill.

While in D.C., 10 of the State Honorees will be named National Honorees on May 7^th. 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. This wonderful trip is designed not only to thank the students for all their hard work, but also to recognize their efforts and encourage others to follow in their footsteps.

The awards program’s State Honorees for 2012 include many remarkable students whose volunteer service was devoted to spreading the spirit of volunteerism. Those students include:

Mary-Brent Brown, 16, of Covington, La., a junior at St. Scholastica Academy, developed two annual fundraising projects and related educational workshops that provide young people with the tools and opportunities to raise money for charity. “In my community, adults ran the fundraisers, so kids lacked an opportunity to prove themselves,” said Mary-Brent. She and her younger sister thought that if they could give young people the chance to raise funds on their own, they could “encourage girls to have a better sense of self, teach boys and girls the skills they need to attain entrepreneurial success, and help other nonprofits succeed through significant donations of kid-raised sums,” Mary-Brent explained.  The two sisters first planned a fashion show along with a pre-show workshop designed to boost the self-confidence of the girls involved and counter negative peer pressure, as well as to raise money for pediatric leukemia patients. Then they formed the “Lemonade Brigade,” where they organize business workshops for kids and also provide them with supplies to run summer lemonade stands. Mary-Brent lines up speakers for the workshops, secures underwriting, gives speeches to create awareness, oversees an annual budget of more than $30,000 and investigates charities. More than 350 kids have participated in the Brown sisters’ program, called “Kids Wanna Help,” which has raised more than $95,000 for 34 charities.

Anne Hope Noel, 12, of Mandeville, La., a seventh-grader at Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic School, started an annual collection drive called “Warm Hearts,” which in the past four years has provided more than 1,000 cold-weather items to homeless shelters and service organizations in her community. She also formed a team that has participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life for several years, helping to raise almost $10,000 for cancer research in honor of a friend who died of the disease. Anne’s volunteer career started when she was 5 after her younger brother was diagnosed with hemophilia. She noticed what pleasure young patients got from stickers and special band-aids, so she started a penny drive to raise money to purchase these items. “It was such an amazing feeling to help someone else, and I was hooked!” Anne said.  After an unusually cold autumn a few years ago, Anne contacted a local organization to see what she could do to help homeless people stay warm. She decided to collect blankets, coats, scarves, mittens and other things the homeless can use to bundle up against the winter chill. Then she asked friends and community members to donate items and to help. “I have learned that so many times, a lot of people really want to help; they just don’t know how to get started,” said Anne. Her collection drive is now an annual event at several schools in her community, and when classmates want to know about service projects, they come to Anne. “The glow and warmth that I feel when I finish a program and get that ‘Thank You’ carries me for months,” Anne said.

Hope Edwards, 18, of Lincoln, Neb., a senior at Lincoln Southeast High School, conceived and spearheaded a citywide community service day in which more than 9,000 students volunteered at businesses, nonprofit organizations, parks, school grounds and in neighborhoods across Lincoln. Hope wanted to do something to help others; she just didn’t know what. “One night in May, I prayed God would show me some needs in Lincoln,” she said. “The ideas started coming the moment I opened my eyes.” The first one was a massive student volunteer day.  Hope presented her idea to school and city officials, and quickly gained their support. Then she recruited a team of students to help her identify volunteer opportunities throughout the community.  She began to seek donations of money and supplies, market the event to the community and to Lincoln’s 36,000 public school students, and create a website to register events and participants. On October 1, 2011, Lincoln students from kindergartners to high school seniors participated in the Lincoln Public Schools’ “StudentServeDay.” They picked up trash, visited the elderly, built sheds, mulched gardens, assembled care packages for soldiers, made blankets for the homeless, prepared food for kids in Africa, painted parking lot stripes and much more. The school district has now decided to make “StudentServeDay” an annual event, according to Hope. “StudentServe has begun to transform a city and change a culture,” she said. “Changing a culture is not impossible.  It all starts with one vision, one community, and one day.”

Want to read more great projects? View the full list of honorees and their projects.

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To learn more about the award, or nominate a youth for next year visit the Prudential Spirit Awards home page.