Applications are now being taken for The 2006 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. The applications are available by calling toll-free 888-450-9961 or through middle schools and high schools, Girl Scout councils, 4-H agents, American Red Cross Chapters, YMCAs and member Volunteer Centers of the Points of Light Foundation and Volunteer Center National Network.
Students must submit completed applications by Oct. 31, 2005.
Participating schools and organizations select Local Honorees and present the Honorees with Certificates of Achievement. Local Honorees receive the President's Volunteer Service Award from the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation if each Honoree has contributed the minimum number of qualifying hours.
All Local Honorees are then reviewed by a state-level judging committee, which will name the top high school student and top middle school student from each state and the District of Columbia as State Honorees in February 2006. State Honorees will receive $1,000, silver medallions and an all-expense paid trip with a parent or guardian to Washington, D.C., May 6-9, 2006, for several days of recognition events and site-seeing.
Last year, Marcus Binns and Chloe Smith, both of Little Rock, were the State Honorees from Arkansas. Marcus, 18, was honored for organizing a food-distribution project, through a church, that provided sandwiches and snacks every other week to homeless and other disadvantaged people in the community. Chloe, 14, was recognized for volunteering at an Easter Seals Arkansas after-school camp where elementary children with and without disabilities were helped to become more independent and self-confident.