Riley Callen, 14, of Pawlet, Vt, was named one of America's top 10 youth volunteers of 2017 today by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards during the program's 22nd annual national award ceremony at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. Selected from a field of more than 31,000 youth volunteers from across the country, Riley has earned the title of National Honoree, along with 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.
Also honored this week in Washington, DC, was Gabrielle Metz, 17, of St Albans, Vt. Gabrielle and Riley were named Vermont's top youth volunteers in February, and were officially recognized last night at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History along with the top two youth volunteers in each other state and the District of Columbia. At that event, each of the 102 State Honorees for 2017 received $1,000 awards as well as personal congratulations from Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps. The honorees each also received engraved silver medallions and all-expense-paid trips with a parent to Washington, DC, for this week's recognition events.
Riley, an eighth-grader at Dorset Elementary School, founded an annual "hike-a-thon" in the hills of Vermont that has raised more than $250,000 to help find a cure for brain tumors, like the ones that have affected her since she was 8 years old. It took two major surgeries to remove the first benign tumor in Riley's brainstem, and another to extract a second tumor three years later. While recovering in the hospital, Riley told her mother she wanted to focus not on her own problems, but on how she could turn her experience into something positive. "I wanted to help find a cure, not just for myself, but for everyone out there like me," she said.
Because hiking is particularly popular in Vermont, Riley, along with her mother and a former babysitter who also had a brain tumor, decided to stage a hike-a-thon to raise money for tumor research. They spent the summer planning the event, asked relatives and friends to help, set up a website to publicize the fundraiser and sold raffle tickets for a "basket bonanza." More than 500 people came to the first "Be Brave for Life" hike-a- thon, which raised over $100,000. The following year, a scavenger hunt, silent auction, and an everyday-heroes nomination initiative were added to the event, and $165,000 more was raised to support research programs at hospitals in Boston and Phoenix. "It makes me feel good to be a part of something that is bigger than just me," said Riley.
Gabrielle, a senior at Bellows Free Academy, helps people with disabilities compete in five sports throughout the year through the Unified Sports Program of Special Olympics Vermont. When her teacher suggested that she would excel at working with Special Olympics athletes, Gabrielle agreed to give it a try, but she was nervous. "I had no experience at all and I doubted the role I could play," she said. But she was also excited by the prospect of exploring a new opportunity to serve others, something she had been doing in different ways for many years.
It turned out her teacher was right: Gabrielle found that she was well-suited to be a Unified Sports "partner." In this role, she serves as a leader, coach and friend to Special Olympics athletes, encouraging, supporting and guiding them as they compete in soccer, floor hockey, basketball, snowshoeing and bocce. "When I play with the athletes during practices and tournaments, I get back so much more than I give," said Gabrielle. "I love to see them compete and realize their potential, to feel the joy that sports can bring." Gabrielle also has personally secured grants to buy brand-new equipment to replace the donated and borrowed sports gear the teams had been using.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards is a national youth recognition program sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
"These honorees have done exemplary work to contribute to the health and vitality of their communities, and we look forward to seeing the great things they achieve in the future," said John Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, Inc. "Congratulations to each of these extraordinary young volunteers."
"It's a privilege to celebrate these students not only for outstanding volunteer service, but for the example they've set for their peers," said Jayne Ellspermann, president of NASSP. "These honorees prove that one person truly can make a difference."