Prudential Foundation Honors Florida Teen as One of America’s Top Youth Volunteers

Bria Brown, 13, was selected from a field of almost 20,000 applicants across the country. She received a personal award of $5,000, an engraved gold medallion, a crystal trophy for her school, and a $5,000 grant from The Prudential Foundation for a nonprofit charitable organization of her choice.

Prudential honored another Florida teen, Mylo Cheng, 18, of Palm Beach. He and Bria were named Florida’s top youth volunteers in February and were recognized at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, along with the top two youth volunteers of every other state and the District of Columbia, as Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees for 2008. Mylo was unable to attend that event, but the honorees in attendance were presented with $1,000 awards and congratulated by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. The honorees also received engraved silver medallions and an all-expense-paid trip with their parents to Washington, D.C., for the recognition events.

Conducted in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards were created 13 years ago by Prudential Financial, Inc., to encourage youth volunteerism and to identify and reward young role models. The program has honored more than 80,000 young volunteers at the local, state, and national level.

Bria, an eighth-grader at North Dade Middle School and a five-year cancer survivor, delivers teddy bears to other cancer patients in the hospital and at their homes. Bria was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer when she was six. After her disease went into remission, she wanted to honor the memory of 17 fellow cancer patients she had met in the hospital who did not survive. She began volunteering for the American Cancer Society as honorary chair of the local Relay for Life fund-raiser, and as an advocate for cancer research.

Bria has recruited friends, classmates, and her Girl Scout troop to help her conduct a teddy-bear drive in her community. Before she delivers her bears, she finds out a little about the recipients and then personalizes her teddy bears for them.

Mylo, a senior at Suncoast Community High School in Riviera Beach and a member of the Palm Beach County 4-H in West Palm Beach, developed a health education program that has been implemented by 4-H groups across Florida to teach young people the importance of eating nutritiously, exercising regularly, and spending less time in front of TV and computer screens.

With a $1,000 grant from the Florida Department of Health, Mylo created a 50-page “healthy lifestyles” manual containing health facts, diet and exercise suggestions, progress charts, information resources, and five lesson plans. As the president of Florida 4-H, an organization with more than 225,000 youth members, Mylo distributed his manual to county 4-H programs and hundreds of youth attending statewide 4-H events, all of whom were then trained to teach the importance of health to their local 4-H groups, friends, and relatives. Mylo also has rallied fellow 4-Hers to support federal legislation to improve physical education in schools, and he is now working to introduce his YEAH! (Youth Empowered Ambassadors for Health) program in local schools.

Two North Carolina students, Nicholas Marriam, 15, of Clayton, and Garrie Brocato, 13, of Charlotte, also won 2008 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.

Nicholas, a freshman at West Johnston High School in Benson, brings a smile and a gift to sick children in a program he started after spending two years in the hospital fighting cancer. Nicholas was six when he was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma. He began collecting games and toys from friends and businesses to bring with him when he went back to visit kids in the hospital where he had been treated.

After his family moved from Maryland to North Carolina, Nicholas formed a nonprofit foundation to celebrate five years of remission, took his program to hospitals in the Raleigh-Durham area, and recruited his cousin back in Maryland to continue his hospital visits there. Nicholas now organizes fund-raisers and uses money from summer jobs and grants to purchase the toys he leaves behind on his hospital visits. He also does some public speaking, manages a board of directors, and handles his foundation’s paperwork.

Garrie, a seventh-grader at Southwest Middle School, recruited a team of friends to help her raise more than $36,000 for cancer causes and to organize events throughout the year to increase cancer awareness.

She gathered friends together for the Relay for Life fund-raiser, and in three months Garrie’s team raised more than $4,000 by selling homemade valentines and bookmarks and holding an Easter egg giveaway. Garrie kept her team together not only for future relays, but also to stage events focusing attention on breast exams, the dangers of cigarette smoking, skin cancer prevention, and other cancer topics. She holds weekly meetings at her home and sends out a regular newsletter to team members and sponsors. Garrie also initiated an art supplies drive for cancer patients at a summer camp and shaved her head to show support for those suffering through chemotherapy treatments.

Two South Carolina students, Brittnii Watts, 18, of Sumter, and Carson Cox, 13, of Myrtle Beach, won 2008 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards as well.

Brittnii, a senior at Sumter High School, has organized a free summer “Kids Day” for the past three years that has given more than 500 underprivileged children a fun and educational opportunity she never had while growing up. “I was always disappointed that my parents could never afford to send me to a summer camp,” Brittnii said, “and I knew that when I got the opportunity, I wanted to do something for kids just like me.”

Each year Brittnii distributes more than 1,500 flyers throughout her community to advertise her one-day camp, arranges transportation for all of the participants, recruits teachers and student volunteers from her school to serve as chaperones, puts together a detailed schedule, and plans all of the activities. When Kids Day arrives, children get to play tennis, soccer, tug-of-war and other games, eat a healthy lunch, and learn the importance of staying physically fit.

Carson, an eighth-grader at Myrtle Beach Middle School, spearheaded the remodeling and refurbishing of an outdated kitchen at a preschool for disadvantaged children. Carson got the idea for his project while volunteering with his mother and her church group at the Friendship House Preschool.

Carson developed a plan and made a list of potential contributors and volunteers, then wrote letters and visited local businesses to solicit help with his project. Carson and his volunteers installed a new custom island, cleaned cabinets and countertops, painted walls, fixed the stove, waxed the floor, and completed the renovation in just two weeks over Christmas vacation. When they were finished, Carson purchased a new microwave, pots, pans, and utensils for the new kitchen.

Two Georgia students, Mihir Chaudhary, 18, of Alpharetta, and Courtney Smits, 11, of McDonough, each received a 2008 Prudential Spirit of Community Award too.

Mihir, a senior at Alpharetta High School, formed a club at his school to raise money to help rebuild, refurbish, and re-supply war-ravaged schools in northern Uganda. After receiving permission from school administrators, Mihir formed a partnership with the Awere Secondary School in Gulu, Uganda. He then recruited teen volunteers and planned a series of fund-raisers, including dodge ball tournaments, penny collection jars, and candy sales. Mihir also solicited donations from businesses and other organizations. So far, Mihir’s Schools for Schools club has raised more than $10,000 to provide clean water, teacher training, and new books for disadvantaged Ugandan students attending the Awere Secondary School.

Courtney, a sixth-grader at Union Grove Middle School, created a campaign to support returning servicemen and women who need prosthetics or prosthetic care, and to raise public awareness of the issues faced by wounded U.S. soldiers. Courtney, whose father and stepfather are both veterans with prosthetics, wanted to do something for all soldiers who sustain serious injury in the line of duty. 

With help from her mother and a friend, Courtney designed a Web site to solicit donations and began planning a series of fund-raising events, including a golf tournament, a family luncheon, and a beauty pageant. The proceeds have gone to the American Legion’s Heroes to Hometowns program, which establishes a support network and coordinates resources for severely injured service members returning home, and to Sew Much Comfort, which designs and makes adaptable clothing for service members with prosthetics.

Ten of the 102 Spirit of Community Award winners were named America’s top ten youth volunteers for 2008. In addition to Bria Brown, the other honorees were:

• Kristen Allcorn, 18, of Sedalia, Mo., who founded a soup kitchen that provides a hot evening meal five days a week.
• Kristin Brandt, 17, of Lock Haven, Pa., who rallied her school and community to help her build a two-bedroom modular home on her school grounds. The house was then transported to Mississippi, where it was presented to an 80-year-old woman who had lost everything during Hurricane Katrina. 
• Shanna Decker, 17, of Plainview, Minn., who has made more than 600 visits to young cancer patients over the past nine years to give them hope and inspire them with her own cancer experience, which resulted in a leg amputation. 
• Talia Leman, 13, of Waukee, Iowa, who started an organization called “RandomKid,” which seeks to educate, motivate, and unify young people around the world to work on a broad spectrum of pressing needs. Her projects have raised money for hurricane victims, helped build a school in Cambodia, and provided clean water in Africa. 
• Jenna Machado, 17, of Boulder, Colo., who founded a nonprofit organization to increase awareness about depression and suicide prevention after a cousin took her own life. Jenna has delivered community presentations on the warning signs of depression and suicide, conducted an education program in middle and high schools, and raised money to provide treatment sessions for at-risk teens. 
• Riley Miller, 14, of Bowling Green, Ky., who has organized an annual citywide day of lemonade sales for the past three years to raise money for childhood cancer research, after losing two little brothers to leukemia. Last year, Riley managed 200 volunteers and 29 lemonade stands, collecting more than $19,000 and bringing her three-year total to $50,000. 
• Kaylee Marie Radzyminski, 16, of Cleveland, Tenn., who collects CDs and DVDs and sends them out every week to American soldiers serving in combat zones. More than 200 organizations across the country have joined her “Tunes 4 the Troops” campaign, and more than 170,000 discs have been shipped to U.S. troops overseas. 
• Mark Rinkel, 12, of Aurora, Colo., who raised more than $16,000 to provide medical service dogs for his little brother and other children suffering from Type I diabetes. To raise the money, he operated a lemonade stand at community events last summer and built a Web site to solicit donations. 
• Joey Rizzolo, 13, of Paramus, N.J., who organized a Freedom Walk last September that drew more than 450 local residents to join in remembering the lives lost on September 11, 2001, including many in his town. Joey’s event also was dedicated to thanking first responders, U.S. service members, and veterans for saving lives and protecting our freedom.