City of Madison Mayor David Cielewicz and Police Chief Nobel Wray to present President’s Service Awards to local students.
Twenty-nine individual Dane County students, and 13 youth groups representing hundreds of additional students will be honored for their commitment to community service at this year’s Martin Luther King Youth Service Day Celebration: Living the Dream…Don’t Wait to Make a Change! The 12th annual event will be held on Monday, Jan. 18, 2010 at the Monona Terrace Convention Center from 8am-3pm and is free to all Dane County middle and high school students. Between three and four hundred students are expected to participate in this year’s event. This year’s sponsors include; the King Coalition, United Way, Kraft, Hands on Network, and Points of Light Foundation.
The event is planned by a group of youth and adults that wish to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through a day of service and learning for young people. Performances are scheduled by spoken word artists from Johnson Brothers Entertainment, guest speakers will be Muhibb Dyer and Kwabena Nixon from Milwaukee’s Flood the Hood with Dreams Entertainment. Students will choose from a variety of breakout sessions where they will learn from other students about ways to serve their community. A major focus of the event is to encourage youth to commit to 100 hours of volunteer service during the year 2010.
The afternoon is devoted to actual service projects in the community focusing on the themes of hunger, homelessness and literacy. Youth from all over Dane County are involved in planning and participating in a variety of projects ranging from food collections, making and sending cards to US troops overseas and getting community members to help with the devastation in Haiti, and more. Most service projects will take place between 1:30 and 3:00 p.m.
The President's Service Awards were established in 1982 to honor outstanding individuals, families, groups, organizations, businesses and labor unions engaged in voluntary community service addressing unmet human service, educational, environmental and public safety needs. To receive the Presidential Service Award, youth were required to perform a minimum of 100 hours of community service.
Area middle and high school students Mikaela Barger, Wesley Becker, Siri Borrud, Max Edmonds-Ramirez, Girls Inc.-Kennedy Heights Community Center, Zea Gravitt-Biek, Joyce Hemphill’s Wonderful Classes, Chloe Imhoff, Jacob Lee, Kaylynn Lochinger, Brishel Paulman, Heidi Pullen, Sherman Middle School Youth Resource Center, Makayla Suh, Verona Area High School-8th Hour Class, Kathryn Von Der Heide, Emma Weisensel, Wright Middle School Crew Team, Arkeem Ashley, Genny Cox, Luis Garduno, Jennifer Neblett, Karen Ordonez, Suriel Perez, Alex Perez Zecua, Terrianna Roberson, Marisol Tecalero-Vivian, and Kevin Xiong. The 100-Hour Challenge awardees will be honored at the Youth Service Event at the Monona Terrace. Madison Mayor Cieslewiscz and Police Chief Noble Wray will present the awards.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Everyone can be great because anybody can serve.” Dane County youth have proven this in a variety of ways over the past year.