Two Orange County Public School students have been honored for exemplary volunteer service from the 2013 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. Tiffany Tang from Cypress Creek High was selected as a Distinguished Finalist Award recipient and Merrie Grace Harding from Boone High School was awarded a Certificate of Excellence.
These awards are presented annually by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards honor young people across the nation for outstanding community service activities. Volunteer activities were judged on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact, and personal growth.
Tiffany Tang co-founded “REACH (Recognizing, Experiencing Asian Cultural Heritage)” and is currently the president of the organization that now has 70 members. Tiffany and her friends have raised $33,000 to support performances, classroom presentations, and special carnivals to promote Asian culture.
Merrie Grace Harding has focused much of her community service in Ethiopia where nearly 50 million people do not have clean water. As part of her passion to help, she spearheaded a fundraiser at Boone where she helped raise $3,333 for a clean water project. She also helped another local high school raise an additional $300 toward the clean water project. Last summer, she was able to visit the well in Ethiopia which was purchased from the monies collected from the two schools.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program will name America’s top ten youth volunteers in May. More than 370,000 young people have been considered for these awards since the program’s inception in 1995, making it the nation’s largest youth recognition program based exclusively on volunteer service.
