Presidential Awards acknowledged @ Chapel: April 11 Medals deliver at Tea Time with Service, April 12

The President's Volunteer Service Award program aims to honor volunteers that give hundreds of hours per year helping others.  Volunteers receive the Bronze, Silver, Gold, or the President's Lifetime Achievement Award for 4,000+ hours of service.   Awardees receive a personalized certificate, a medallion, and a congratulatory letter from the President of the United States. 

The President's Volunteer Service Award was created by President George W. Bush in 2002. The President's Volunteer Service Award is now an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Points of Light Foundation.  Volunteers track hours at the award website and the Service-Learning office as certifying organization, verifies hours and orders the awards.


The 2016 Casady's President Volunteer Award Chapel acknowledgment was facilitated at Saint Edwards Chapel on April 11 by Casady YAC officers: Miranda T,  Grace P., and Cathy Z.  The guest chapel speaker was our Director of College Counseling, Mr. Josh Bottomly.  Mr. Bottomly connected the audience to the Harvard Executive Summary of College Admission Reform which calls for a  greater good component to the college admission process and shared his English class H2O HOPE service-learning project, which started with a simple WHAT IF and ended with a water well in Africa built by 17 Cyclones; a trans formative experience of his educational career.  

Awardees will receive medals, certificates, letters from President Obama, and tokens of YAC/Service-Learning Program appreciation chosen by the freshman YAC team helping deliver them: Ellie G., Shaheer R., and Isabel A. during "Tea Time with Service-Learning" at Harper @ A-block on April 12, 2016.  

During National Volunteer Week from Wednesday to Friday(Volunteer T-shirt Day), during A-Block, 5th Period or the double, Cyclones are invited to reflect sharing their volunteer experience on video or creating a quilt patch of "The Roots of Service" at Harper.

Congratulations to our 24 gold, 8 silver, and 42 bronze medalists.

24 GOLD    Young Adult(16+years old): 250+ Hours in 12 months   Teens(15-years old): 100+ hours in 2 months
	Seniors	Juniors		Sophomores		Freshmen
	Agnish Chakraburtty	Cyrus Steppe		Chloe Richards		Anna Buckley
	Aubrey Hermen			Gabrielle Moore,		Brandon Trachtenberg
	Julian Thomason,			Mallory Woodruff		Catherine Dube
	Maggie Adair			Mariam Shakir		Daniela Rodriguez-Chavez,
	Nurmeen Jawaid			Max Tjauw		Hallie Reiger
	Tek Kreidler			Safra Shakir Samuel Atkinson		Kaili Nguyen
				Subham Gulati		Katherine Schoeffler
				Tara Ramakrishnan,		Katherine Williams

8  SILVER          Young Adult: 175+ Hours in 12 months                             Teens: 75+ hours in 12 months
	Seniors	Juniors		Sophomores		Freshmen
	Grace Griffin	Mackenzie Kenney		Brady Rodts		Ellison Guzzy
		Philip Whitmarsh,		Kirathi Sindhwani
				Natalie Hugos
				Olivia Utz

42 BRONZE Young Adult: 100+ hours in 12 months                              Teens: 50+ hours in 12 months
	Seniors		Juniors		Sophomores	Freshmen
	Allison Tien,		Carmen Sears		Caleb Richards	Claire Richardson
	Avery Timberlake,		Claire Darrow,		Grace Hall	Emily Hoover
	Caitlin Fuller		Dalton Bishop			Hope Bryer-Ash
	Charles Colton Gelnar		Emma Richmond			Sara Anderson
	Conner Coles,		Grace Pitman
	Danelle Griffiths		Isaiah Levingston
	Deja Kirk		Jacob Uhland
	Dylan Dobson		Jonathan Lee
	Emile Karam,		Joshua Britt
	Emily Richards		Judy Nguyenvo
	Joe Bonfiglio		Lauren Simms
	John Zuk		Nicole Jia
	Leighton Gelnar		Rahul Sodam
	Lucas Tilghman		Turner Waddell
	Lujean Abuelshar
	Mackenzie Blalock
	Maren Cottrell
	Namir Khaliq
	Neeley Russell
	Rebecca Puls
	Sarah Covington
	Shaan Patel

On Sunday, President Obama issued a proclamation announcing April 10-16, 2016, as National Volunteer Week.  He said,

"Volunteers help drive our country's progress, and day in and day out, they make extraordinary sacrifices to expand promise and possibility. During National Volunteer Week, let us shed the cynicism that says one person cannot make a difference in the lives of others by embracing each of our individual responsibilities to serve and shape a brighter future for all."

He calls upon all Americans to observe this week by volunteering in service projects across our country. 

Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) falls during National Volunteer Week, and young people are doing their part by leading projects and participating in GYSD, which celebrates and mobilizes millions of young people who improve their communities through service.  GYSD is the largest service event in the world and the only one dedicated to highlighting the contributions that children and youth make 365 days of the year.

During this week, our country celebrates individuals who channel their civic virtues through volunteerism and encourages more people to make service an integral part of their lives. You can get involved too  – visit Serve.gov.

Sincerely, 

Rhonda Taylor, Director of Partnerships and Program Engagement

Office of External Affairs
Corporation for National and Community Service

On Tuesday, April 12, YAC Frehmen hosted the first "Tea Time with Service Learning" to celebrate award winner, deliver medals, certificates and awards.  Then YAC started recording stories of service for this blog and making reflective quilts which will be give away as thank you's to Casady administrators who have promoted the inclusion of service not just as a requirement for graduation, but as part of the culture of the school implementing a day of service for faculty and a Walk-A-Thon during the regular school day.

On Thursday, April 14, YAC will be volunteering at Evening of the Arts and welcoming a group of art students from Boys and Girls Club with their art teacher.

For Global Youth Service Days, Cyclones are invited to reflect via video telling their volunteer story.  YAC will also be volunteering making pinwheels for Syrian refugees, helping the children be part of Students Rebuild Classroom with a Cause Challenge and helping as needed @ Boys and Girls Club on Friday, April 15 from 4:00-7:00.  On Saturday, April 16, a group of YAC members will visit the Homeless Alliance for a guided tour of the WestTown Resource Center as part of the investigation site visit of the new project planned during Independent Study Classroom with a Cause facilitated by freshman Ellison G.  On Sunday, Cyclones have been invited to volunteer creating a garden for US Grant High School in collaboration with the Interfaith Alliance and Urban Harvest.  To sign-up for any of these projects go to Casady Places to Serve Blog.