Community Corner

Local Caring Youth To Be Honored March 15

Our local area is full of kids who are helping others.

Twenty-eight youth who have given outstanding service to others will be honored at the Caring Youth Recognition event Thursday, March 15, 2012, at 7 p.m. at the

This year’s featured speaker is Joan Summerside and service dog Nala of Helping Paws. Headquartered in Hopkins, Helping Paws is a volunteer-based non-profit organization whose mission is to further the independence of people with physical disabilities (other than blindness or deafness) through the use of service dogs.

The Caring Youth Recognition salutes young people in grades 7 through 12 who have unselfishly involved themselves in a cause or situation benefiting others. It is designed to honor young people who demonstrate caring by reaching out to others or whose day-to-day lifestyles reflect uncommon concern for others. Caring Youth supports the attitude of giving without expectation of reward or recognition. It encourages an attitude of recognizing the needs of others and responding to those needs in a personal, caring way.
 
Civic and service organizations, schools and faith community members in the Golden Valley, Hopkins and Minnetonka communities nominated the youth.
 
The Caring Youth Recognition event is a collaborative effort among the cities of Golden Valley, Hopkins, and Minnetonka, the Minnetonka and Hopkins school districts, and the Glen Lake Optimists of Minnetonka.
 
The 2012 Caring Youth recipients include:
 
•             Sarah Achartz, a Hopkins High School student and Minnetonka resident, has been involved in multiple volunteer activities throughout her 13-year Girl Scout career.
 
•             Alex Aronovich, a Wayzata High School student and a Plymouth resident, has served as the 2011-2012 board chair for The Depot Coffee House in Hopkins.
 
•             Meredith Campbell, a Minnetonka High School student and Minnetonka resident, has volunteered for the past year at ICA Foodshelf in Minnetonka.
 
•             Sisters Betsy, Josie and Lily Dorn, all Minnetonka residents and Minnetonka High School students, stepped in to help care for a neighborhood family’s four children in the wake of a parent’s chronic illness.
 
•             Bailey Fagerlee, Minnetonka High School student and Shorewood resident, has volunteered the past four years with the high school’s Youth Development Council.
 
•             Mari Fromstein, Hopkins High School student and a Golden Valley resident, has volunteered weekly since 2010 in the sibling play area at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.
 
•             Morgan Frye, Chanhassen High School student and Victoria resident, has volunteered at Minnetonka United Methodist Church in a variety of ways, from sleeping outside to raise funds the for ICA foodshelf to serving meals to the homeless to traveling to flood-ravaged areas to help clean up homes.
 
•             Claire Hobbs, Hopkins High School student and Hopkins resident, volunteers at All Saints Lutheran Church in Minnetonka.
 
•             Imann Hodleh, a Hopkins High School student and St. Louis Park resident, volunteered at the Somali cultural celebration in Hopkins, hosted by Hopkins Joint Community Police Partnership Multicultural Advisory Committee.
 
•             Zakeria Husein, Twin City International Middle School student and Minneapolis resident, volunteered at two events organized by the Hopkins Joint Community Police Partnership Multicultural Advisory Committee –the Cinco de Mayo and Somali cultural celebrations.
 
•             Bria Johnson, Hopkins North Junior High student and Hopkins resident, has participated in “Be the Change” at Hopkins North, where she has dedicated many after school hours to a variety of projects from making sandwiches for homeless shelters to promoting Drug Awareness Week to assembling care packages for overseas military personnel.
 
•             Nicholas Jones, a Minnetonka High School student and Shorewood resident, has volunteered the past four years with the Youth Development Council at Minnetonka High School.
 
•             Nick Jorgensen, Hopkins High School student and Minnetonka resident, has volunteered with Hopkins Special Education since he was in the fourth grade at Glen Lake Elementary School.
 
•             Tyler Keller, Minnetonka High School student and Golden Valley resident, nominated for his volunteer work at the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley.
 
•             Abby Kozberg, Hopkins High School student and Hopkins resident, volunteers every Tuesday after school at Roitenberg Assisted Living in St. Louis Park, where she gives manicures to seniors living at the facility.
 
•             Alex Lapp, Hopkins High School student and Hopkins resident, volunteers each Sunday to run the sound board at Faith Presbyterian Church in Minnetonka.
 
•             Eric Mack, a Hopkins West Junior High student and Hopkins resident, volunteered with the Hopkins Joint Community Police Partnership Multicultural Advisory Committee Cinco de Mayo celebration in May 2011.
 
•             Jeremy Marks, a Minnetonka High School student and Eden Prairie resident, volunteers at St. Luke Presbyterian Church in Wayzata in a number of roles, including serving as an elder on the church governing board.
 
•             Ikram Osman, a Hopkins High School student and Minnetonka resident, volunteers weekly at the inpatient units at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, where she reads to and plays games with hospitalized children. Ikram was also nominated this year by the Hopkins Joint Community Police Partnership Multicultural Advisory Committee for her work with the Somali Cultural Celebration, where she organized a dance group to perform.
 
•             Delaney Perkins, Hopkins North Junior High student and Hopkins resident, has volunteered with Be the Change at her school. As part of that group, she has put together care packages for soldiers, made posters for a food drive and helped assemble projects for another organization in the district.
 
•             Mariah Peterson, Hopkins resident and a Hopkins High School student, is a teen volunteer at the Hopkins Library. Las summer, she managed the “Read. Write. Draw.” and “Best Book Ever” reading programs at the library. She also volunteers for the Paws to Read program, where children read to therapy dogs.
 
•             Nastaran Nassiri, a Minnetonka High School student and Minnetonka resident, has for the past three years volunteered multiple times weekly with the Ridgedale YMCA/Minnetonka Heights Community Program.
 
•             Sachin Rao, Hopkins High School student and Golden Valley resident, has volunteered weekly for two years at the Golden Valley Library. He assists patrons with computer questions and shelves materials.
 
•             Cassandra Shields, a Minnetonka resident and homeschooled student, is a member of the Next Generation Teen Ministry Praise and Worship Team, Television Ministry and Dance Ministry of Speak the Word International in Golden Valley.
 
•             Asia Snetter, Hopkins North Junior High student and Hopkins resident, volunteers with “Be the Change” at her school.
 
•             Tess Stender, Hopkins High School student and Eden Prairie resident, has volunteered weekly with the Hopkins Education Foundation since 2010. She helps with special events, as well as with office and administrative tasks.

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