Two South Dakota Youth Honored

THURSDAY, 27 MAY 2010
Submitted By: Mariangela Silvestre

Two South Dakota students, Presley Door, 18, of Brookings and Kallen Rittberger, 13, of Hermosa, were honored in the nation’s capital last night for their outstanding volunteer work during the presentation of The 2010 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. The two young people – along with 100 other top youth volunteers from across the country – received $1,000 awards as well as personal congratulations from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Olympic snowboarding champion Seth Wescott at the 15th annual award ceremony and gala dinner reception, held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Presley and Kallen were named the top high school and middle level youth volunteers in South Dakota last February. In addition to their cash awards, they received engraved silver medallions and an all-expense-paid trip with their parents to Washington, D.C., for this week’s recognition events.

“The Prudential Spirit of Community honorees give us great hope for the future,” said Dr. Rice. “Their compassion and commitment are already making a real difference in so many lives, and I have no doubt that their leadership will continue to positively impact the world for many years to come.”

Presley, a senior at Brookings High School, has played a key role in the operation of the Brookings Regional Humane Society since she was a freshman in high school, spending 8 to 10 hours a week cleaning, caring for animals, and performing basic medical procedures. Presley learned about the society’s need for volunteers while looking for a dog to adopt, and because she had always wanted to be a veterinarian, she signed up. “I had no idea that the shelter would instill in me a passion so strong that it would consume most of my time,” she said.

Presley started out performing routine tasks such as cleaning kennels, sweeping and dusting, grooming and socializing animals, and checking food and water. As she gained more experience, she learned to give vaccinations and medications to animals, draw blood for medical tests, and assist with simple surgeries. She also helps with fund-raising events, and sometimes travels to Indian reservations to rescue dogs and help at a spay/neuter clinic. Presley was so effective at the shelter that she was offered a part-time paid position as an animal care technician after a year, but she continues to volunteer about 10 hours a week outside of her job. “Volunteering has given me the experience and the confidence to know that I can handle a career in veterinary medicine,” said Presley.

Kallen, a member of the Kids Inc. 4-H Club and a seventh-grader at Custer Middle School in Custer, has taken part in a broad range of service projects benefiting senior citizens in his area through his 4-H club, church, and school. Several older people have taken an active interest in helping Kallen over the years, so “I was motivated to give back to people who had been kind and caring to me,” he said. “Then I realized that others needed help as well.”

Kallen has collected and delivered holiday meals for the elderly, raked their yards, made sweet breads to take to a nursing home, and played games with patients at a senior care facility. He also helped prepare and serve a spaghetti dinner to honor grandparents, cooked food for funerals, scraped and painted a senior citizen’s house, and made bandage-rollers for the Red Cross. In addition, he recruits other students to join his volunteer efforts, and helps his own grandparents whenever he can. “It would be really easy to make an excuse to not do things for other people,” said Kallen. “But if everyone could help each other, our whole country would be better for it.”

“Presley and Kallen are wonderful examples of young Americans who care about the world around them and have taken the initiative to improve that world,” said John R. Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, Inc. “We salute their effort, their achievements, and their spirit of community.”

More than 21,000 young people submitted applications for the 2010 awards program last fall through schools, Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and affiliates of the Points of Light Institute’s HandsOn Network. The top middle level and high school applicants in each state were selected in February and flown to Washington this week with their parents for four days of special recognition events.

Source: www.businesswire.com