Kids Make a Difference

Award honors youth volunteers

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The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards recognized 10 National Honorees (pictured) in May 2007 for their outstanding volunteer work. (Photo: Courtesy Prudential Financial)

May 16, 2007

Have you ever thought about starting a community service project for your town, or volunteering at a shelter? Thousands of kids each year do just that, and make a huge impact on our society.

To honor kids' volunteer work, Prudential Financial created a program called the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. This month, the program's top 10 National Honorees for 2007 attended a special ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Kelydra Welcker, a National Honoree from Parkersburg, West Virginia, invented a way to purify drinking water in her town. The young scientist took action because she wanted to help her community.

"It wasn't originally for the honors. I saw problems and I wanted it done," she told Scholastic News Online. "I always thought knowing what's in your drinking water should be a right, not a privilege. Everyone in my community should have clean, safe drinking water."

Kelydra's town is near a DuPont chemical plant that makes Teflon. Teflon is used for things like space shuttles and heat-resistant clothing. Unfortunately, tiny amounts of a chemical used to make Teflon ended up in the town's water supply. This chemical, called ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO), is poisonous and may cause health problems in humans and animals.

Kelydra created a test to find the chemical in the water supply. Then she figured out a way of removing the chemical from the water.

Now Kelydra has a patent—a legal document that gives an inventor of something the sole right to sell it or make it—pending for her test.

"I hope when I go to college, I can make my technique more efficient," she said. "I want to make sure it's the best it can be before I can give it to my community."

Kelydra Welcker does research in her home lab in Parkersburg, West Virginia. (Photo: Courtesy of Kelydra Welcker)

Kelydra plans over the next couple of years to develop a prototype—the first version of an invention—that not only works well in the home, but can also be used in the chemical industry.

The Value of Volunteering

For the past 12 years, Prudential has teamed up with the National Association of Secondary School Principals to recognize kids like Kelydra who volunteer.

"We believe that volunteerism is an essential component for addressing the challenges we face in the country," Scott Peterson, executive director of the program, told Scholastic News Online. "It's really incumbent upon, we think, the citizens to take on a share of the responsibility of making sure their communities are good places to live."

The program has honored more than 75,000 students in grades 5 through 12 over the last 12 years. Each year, two volunteers are chosen from each of the 50 states. Each honoree receives $1,000, an engraved medallion, and a four-day trip to Washington, D.C. Ten National Honorees receive additional awards.

To learn more about volunteering, you can order a free copy of Catch the Spirit—a guide created by Prudential to help kids learn about community service—at:

Catch the Spirit
Pueblo, CO 81009
1-888-8-PUEBLO

Critical Thinking Question

Read today's news story, and then answer the following question.

Why do you think it's important to volunteer?

Join a discussion of this question on our bulletin board.

 

Tiffany Chaparro is a contributing writer for Scholastic News Online.

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