HPA Eighth Grade Volunteer Honored for Outstanding Volunteer Service at Award Presentation

WAIMEA, Island of Hawaii—Meimei Nakahara, an eighth-grader at Hawaii Preparatory Academy, was officially presented with an engraved silver medallion to signify her selection as one of Hawaii's top two youth volunteers for 2008 in The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. HPA Headmaster Dr. Olaf Jorgenson presented the medallion to Nakahara at a Middle School assembly on Monday, April 7.

As a State Honoree, Nakahara also will receive $1,000 and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where she will join more than 100 other top honorees from across the country for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America's top youth volunteers from 2008 at that time.

Nakahara is being honored for playing a lead role in a monitoring project that collects data on Hawaii green sea turtles and raises public awareness about the plight of this endangered species. Nakahara's interest in the turtles was sparked by a school field trip in the fourth grade. Two years later, when she encountered an opportunity to volunteer with a turtle-tagging group, she jumped at the chance.

Under the direction of Marc Rice, director of the school's Sea Turtle Research Program, and George Balazs, leader of the Marine Turtle Research Program, NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Nakahara first had to learn about turtles so she could help educate the public about the project. Soon, she was going on regular data-collection trips to one of the program study sites at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Resort, carefully measuring turtles' width, length, thickness, and weight so their growth could be tracked over time. Nakahara participated in more than 20 such trips, and as a result, hopes to pursue a career in marine science.

"Working with live animals is special because you realize they have no voice, so humans really need to take care of them," said Nakahara.

All middle level and high school schools in the U.S., along with all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and Volunteer Centers, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award last November. Nearly 4,500 local honorees were then reviewed by state-level judges who selected two state honorees—one middle level and one high school youth—plus a select number of distinguished finalists from each state and the District of Columbia, based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact, and personal growth.

The awards program, sponsored in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), is part of a broad initiative created by Prudential Financial to encourage young people to become involved in community service. Other elements of the initiative include a community leadership training program for high school students and a variety of educational materials for young people and teachers relating to youth volunteerism.

For more information about this year's Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit www.prudential.com/spirit or www.principals.org/prudential.