Clayton High School
Joanna Karpiel
Joanna grew up doing community service and is thankful for those experiences. As a Girl Scout, one of her top service projects included community cleanups and leading younger scouts. To earn her Bronze Award, Joanna’s troop threw birthday parties for children in homeless shelters. Her Silver Award was achieved by preparing pamphlets and presenting an event on bike safety. She is now working toward earning the Gold Award, which involves a project of at least 80 hours of service. In addition to scouting, she is an altar server at her church. Joanna was elected president of her school’s student council in her senior year. As part of her responsibilities as president, she helped to prepare the school for homecoming, which included preparation of the gym, cleanups of the school courtyard, counting dance tickets, setting up for the dance and organizing committees for various events. Service to others is a big part of Joanna’s life, and she believes that her contributions to helping others will continue to grow.
Tyler Murray
Tyler manages to maintain excellent grades while taking part in his school’s marching, jazz and concert bands and bowling team. He is a student leader for the marching band and team captain for the bowling league. In addition, he is continually active in his church and its youth group. As a youth group volunteer, he has assisted the leadership with younger classes, participating in youth-led worship and many community service projects, including fall leaf raking for elderly parishioners and roadside cleanup. Over the past three years, Tyler has been involved with the 30-hour Famine, an event organized by World Vision. Groups throughout the world gather and spend a weekend fasting while doing community service activities and raising awareness of world hunger. During the event, he helped to feed those in need in Camden through an organization called Seeds of Hope. Each year the group prepared and packaged more than 10,000 meals to be distributed across the globe. He has also volunteered at an assistant living facility for mentally challenged individuals where he interacted with the residents, cleaned the pool area, decorated for various seasons of the year, and played games.
Clearview High School
Kiley Parker
Kiley describes helping her neighbors as deeply rewarding. She volunteers in many ways, including participating in various clean-up events, clearing trash in area parks and weeding at local municipal buildings. As a member of the school’s environmental club, she has helped to create public service announcements to raise awareness about improving the environment and suggesting ways to care for the natural landscape. She is also a reporter for her school’s newspaper and helps to run a journalism club for middle school students. As senior secretary of the school’s National Honor Society Chapter, she organizes volunteering groups for areas in need. Kiley loves her community, and it is her ultimate desire to lead it forward in the years ahead.
Ty Whalen
Ty enjoys serving his community and experiencing the constant joy and excitement that comes with helping others. He is inspired by his favorite Chinese proverb that says “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.” This quote serves to remind him that there are many ways to positively impact the lives of other people. As a state wrestling champ, Ty volunteers in the school’s youth wresting program. Though he finds it sometimes challenging to balance his personal goals with his desire to help others, he has discovered the importance of volunteering. He regards it not as a requirement but as a rewarding hobby, and he is grateful for the opportunities to serve others.
Deptford High School
Beverly Phillips
Giving to others is a legacy that has been passed down to Beverly and her family by her late grandmother. Living in a poor neighborhood while raising seven children, Beverly’s grandmother helped others in her community, from taking in the homeless to providing food to those in need. Her sense of selflessness and compassion was ingrained in Beverly’s mother, who then taught her children the importance of helping the less fortunate. As a church counselor in training, she has worked with children entertaining them and helping them with any issues they faced. She has also donated her time to her church’s foreign mission board. To honor her grandmother’s legacy, the Phillips family has established the Mattie M. Owens Legacy Project. The foundation has conducted Christmas toy drives and Thanksgiving meal giveaways to senior citizens in her community. Beverly plans to continue volunteering and helping others in any way possible, just as her grandmother did.
Ajani Adovor
In his freshman year, Ajani was given the opportunity to serve on a Sioux reservation in South Dakota, where he saw firsthand the crowded living conditions of the Native Americans. He describes the experience not as service work, but as a joyful time where he was able to bring some happiness to the children by playing games with them. He also volunteered in Ghana for the Nubuke Foundation and spent time there organizing book donations and creating an organized library system. Though the work was daunting, he was inspired to keep going by knowing that the children there would have access to a library. Through volunteering, Ajani has learned the importance of looking beyond oneself and being open to opportunities to serve others.
Delsea High School
Katelin Burton
As a child, Katelin was taught to serve others before herself. She particularly enjoys taking part in any activities that involve community service. She is presently a member of Friends of SAVE, an organization promoting interaction between students with disabilities and their peers. As a member of Unified Track, Katelin trains alongside athletes with intellectual disabilities. Other community service projects include helping at a Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless and connecting with senior citizens through a luncheon and as part of her school’s Glamour Girls chapter. Katelin is a member of the National Honor Society and along with its other members has donated time to an animal shelter and cleaned up Malaga Lake Park. She describes giving back to her community as a fulfilling experience and plans to continue her commitment to volunteerism during her college years.
Christopher Otto
Chris has participated in numerous community service projects, including fundraisers and park cleanups. One of his favorite projects is helping a family friend with book swaps at numerous community events, including car shows, food truck festivals and the annual harvest festival at Mood’s Farm Market. Not only does this activity help his friend to earn a living but also promotes the love of reading in younger children. Chris has donated his own funds to toy, animal shelter and coat drives. He recently collected money at his school’s football games and donated it to victims of the tornados that struck the area this past summer. He is a member of the National Honor Society and hopes to continue devoting his time to helping others as he goes through life.
Gateway Regional High School
Katherine Eimer
As a child, Katelin was taught to serve others before herself. She particularly enjoys taking part in any activities that involve community service. She is presently a member of Friends of SAVE, an organization promoting interaction between students with disabilities and their peers. As a member of Unified Track, Katelin trains alongside athletes with intellectual disabilities. Other community service projects include helping at a Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless and connecting with senior citizens through a luncheon and as part of her school’s Glamour Girls chapter. Katelin is a member of the National Honor Society and along with its other members has donated time to an animal shelter and cleaned up Malaga Lake Park. She describes giving back to her community as a fulfilling experience and plans to continue her commitment to volunteerism during her college years.
Joseph Garrett
Chris has participated in numerous community service projects, including fundraisers and park cleanups. One of his favorite projects is helping a family friend with book swaps at numerous community events, including car shows, food truck festivals and the annual harvest festival at Mood’s Farm Market. Not only does this activity help his friend to earn a living but also promotes the love of reading in younger children. Chris has donated his own funds to toy, animal shelter and coat drives. He recently collected money at his school’s football games and donated it to victims of the tornados that struck the area this past summer. He is a member of the National Honor Society and hopes to continue devoting his time to helping others as he goes through life.
Glassboro High School
Ah’Jahnae Barker
Ah’Jahnae considers volunteering as one of the best decisions she has ever made. She has participated in volunteer activities since her sophomore year. Cleaning up a local park was her first service project, and the rewarding feeling it gave encouraged her to find many ways to help others. Among her many volunteer activities are participation in an annual suicide prevention walk, sending notes to residents of the United Methodist Home, laying wreaths on the graves of local veterans and assisting a Boy Scout troop with cleaning headstones at a veteran’s cemetery. In school, she has raised money for the Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign and Paws for Healing Heroes through an annual Penny War. Her favorite activity is Tim Tebow’s Night to Shine Prom for special needs students. Serving others is a vital part of Ah’Jahnae’s lifetime plan.
On’Yae Barker
On’Yae has been volunteering since her sophomore year. She has participated in a clean communities park cleanup and writing letters to residents of a local assisted living facility. She has helped to make 300 sandwiches to be distributed to the homeless and wrote notes of encouragement to patients undergoing chemotherapy. On’Yae has supported local veterans by laying wreaths on their graves and cleaning their headstones to assist with an Eagle Scout project. Besides helping to run the school’s Penny War, where funds were collected and donated to the Rotary and Paws for Healing Heroes, she participated in the Night to Shine prom, where she friended a child with special needs. On’Yae plans to continue her involvement in the community and to serve the needs of the less fortunate.
Kingsway Regional High School
Kaitlyn Duffy
Kaitlyn believes that a servant’s heart is one of the most important traits one can have, and that serving others can change lives. She has traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, to help refugee families by organizing donated clothing and leading a Bible school for young refugees. In her home church, Kaitlyn has served as a youth group leader, band leader and vacation Bible school teacher. Her other service projects include decorating bags for children in foster care, helping prepare 300 sandwiches each month to distribute to the homeless and taking part each year at the Night to Shine dance for teens and adults with special needs. Service has ignited Kaitlyn’s passion for helping others and she plans to enter the ministry after college.
Rubem Santos
Rubem has been a member of the Boy Scouts for six years and through his involvement he has given extensive service to others. As a scout, he has taken part in preservation efforts, including roadside cleanups and replanting native plant species and developing and maintaining nature trails. His Eagle Scout project promoted environmental conservation. When he is not volunteering as a Boy Scott, Rubem’s service projects range from food drives to veteran ceremonies. He is also a member of the First Robotics team and has taken part in its yearly clothing drives. One of his most memorable experiences with the team was creating a custom mold design for adaptive swim fins to be used by veterans wounded in battle and individuals with spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries and other conditions. At the conclusion of this program, the sense of achievement and happiness inspired Rubem to pursue a career in engineering to help others in disadvantaged countries.
Paulsboro High School
Zipporah Cooper
To Zipporah, community service is giving to others without expecting anything in return. She has donated her time to prepare her school for its homecoming dance. As a student council member, she participates in the annual Toys for Tots drive, which she enjoys because it provides an opportunity to help families in need. Zipporah also volunteers at the concession stand of her town’s midget football team. She hopes that by volunteering, she is serving as a role model to younger children and inspiring others to volunteer.
Brandon Armstrong
Brandon has grown up wanting to help people and plans to become a police officer one day. Because his community has given so much to him, serving his town as a police officer would be his way of giving back to it. Though he is very active in school sports, Brandon still finds the time to participate in volunteer activities through the school’s Key Club, student council, National Honor Society and to serve as class president for three of his four high school years. He wants to help others in any way possible and enjoys knowing that they benefit from his volunteer work.
Pitman High School
Reilly Capanna
Volunteering has completely changed Reilly’s life, and she is grateful for the many volunteer activities that she has been given. Since her freshman year in high school, Reilly has volunteered at the United Methodist Communities in Pitman, a senior living residence, where she enjoys helping the residents at bingo night, handing out prizes and helping them back to their rooms. She also volunteered at its spring fling dance, where she set up decorations, served food, danced with the residents and cleaned up afterwards. She says that she loves every minute of her time at the United Methodist Communities. Among her many other volunteer activities are collecting for the town pantry and participating in a park cleanup. Reilly plans on continuing to dedicate her time to better her community.
John Strahorn
As a member of the Havre De Grace Sailing Club, John is a volunteer instructor. He has also volunteered at a haunted house to raise money and food donations for the Feed the Hungry organization. His love of animals led John to volunteer at a no-kill rescue shelter, where he cares for the cats and dogs. During the pandemic, he took action to stop cyber-bulling. John saw that the faces of students during online classes were being copied and then photoshopped onto inappropriate websites or on social media. He brought this problem to the attention of the school administration, which led to a change of policy where students no longer have to show their faces during online classes. In his neighborhood, John has helped an elderly neighbor by shoveling snow, bringing their trash cans to and from the curb and cleaning their property after storms.
Washington Township High School
Antonina Kunis
Antonina has never overlooked the importance of helping others, and she believes that it is an honor to bring joy to those in need. She is a member of her school’s Interact Club’s Executive Board and chaired its first annual 5k turkey trot where the proceeds were donated to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She also aided in running Interact’ s “Festival of Friends” an event for children with special needs. She has also organized events for Students in Action, including a coat drive that brought in 43 coats in just a few hours. Antonina plans to pursue her passion of serving others in the years ahead.
Thomas Tait
Thomas’ attitude toward serving others is best summed up by a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?” Community service is a large part of his life, and every leadership role, club and outside school activity in which takes part are focused on community service. As vice president of community events for his school’s DECA, he conducted a drive to collect food and toiletries for needy families. As a member of the National Honor Society, Thomas has taken part in an organization that makes stockings for American service members stationed throughout the world. Outside of school, he served an internship with the town’s director of senior programs and community affairs and the veterans’ advisory board. One of his most rewarding projects was working to reopen the town’s senior center, which had been closed for 18 months. As he moves toward college, Thomas will dedicate himself to service to others.
West Deptford High School
Lauren Eagle
Lauren believes that helping others is a way to make the world a better place, and she has found many ways to serve. As a member of her school’s Key Club, she has worked with her fellow students on fundraisers and took part in various drives for the benefit of food pantries, animal shelters and collecting clothing and blankets for those in need. She enjoys visiting Brightview Nursing home because it helps to ease the loneliness of its residents. The pandemic did not stop the Key Club’s activities. Lauren and its members assembled gift bags for essential workers. As vice president of the club, she organized a blanket drive for hospitalized children. Lauren. along with her fellow members of the National Honor Society, has organized Operation Blessing, an event to collect essential items and toys for families in need. In her community, she volunteers for Safety Town, a program that aims to teach children basic safety skills. Lauren says that she is just beginning her plans to help others in the future.
Jack Harverson
One of Jack’s favorite volunteer activities is taking part in the local library’s children’s summer reading program and helping in its arts and crafts program. He is a member of his school’s Key Club, and through it has served meals at the Cathedral Kitchen. He has collected food for local pantries, visited a local assisted living residence, where he played games and made crafts with its residents. He especially enjoys volunteering since it gives him a good feeling while helping others to see that there is still good in the world. During the summer, he volunteers for his school’s drama program, building sets and assembling the lighting. He also volunteers for a local theater program. Jack enjoys meeting people from all walks of life and hearing their stories.
Williamstown High School
Alexandria Chin
Alexandria hopes to pursue a career in the healthcare field and toward that goal is a volunteer at Jefferson Hospital Washington Township. She started there as a junior volunteer at its main desk and progressed to its outpatient center. Through her volunteer work, she developed a particular love for elderly patients and enjoyed visiting them each Sunday to sing, celebrate and pray. She has also volunteered to decorate the hallways on the geriatric floor, transported the residents in their wheelchairs, assisted with feeding dinners to them and especially enjoyed talking to one elderly resident who was once a ballerina in New York City. Inspired by the adage, “being good is good business”, she founded a nonprofit organization, Sharing without Borders, for which she purchased and received donations of high quality blankets to replace thin hospital sheets. Alexandria has also sold yellow ribbons with the proceeds donated to our military members to assist them in purchasing supplies and replacing veterans’ medals that had been stolen or destroyed.
Sydney Wiredu
Sydney desires to leave the world a better place. To that end, he has volunteered at God’s Table, a local food pantry, where he saw first-hand the food insecurity of his own community members. Along with the food pantry, he has participated in Rise Against Hunger, for which he made and packaged meals to combat malnutrition, and Operation Christmas Child, an organization that collects and donates presents to needy children. Sydney has served as class president and in that capacity created a Thanksgiving food drive where hundreds of items were collected and distributed to local families. He has also accumulated hundreds of service hours through mentoring and tutoring other students. Over the summer, he represented the State of New Jersey at Boys Nation in Washington, D.C. While there, he created and successfully passed a bill to make the environment safer. Advocating for the overlooked and underprivileged population will always be at the forefront of Sydney’s activities.
Woodbury High School
Nicole Hunter
As a resident of a small town, Nicole has learned the value of helping her neighbors. From an early age, she has volunteered for many projects in her school, churches, hospitals and nursing homes. As an elementary student, she joined the Girl Scouts and from there went on to serve others through a volunteer program at Jefferson Hospital, visiting residents of Woodbury Mews on Martin Luther King Day, helping the local food drive with Thanksgiving dinners and volunteering at the Woodbury Car Show. As a member of the National Honor Society, Nicole participated in the annual Red Cross blood drive. From every volunteer experience she has had, Nicole learned something and is grateful that community service has allowed her to see the world from the perspective of others.
Jordan Smith
Service to others has played a major part in Jordan’s high school years. He has been captain of his school’s wresting and football teams since his junior year. As a leader, he serves his teammates by making sure that they are doing well in class and helping them with their studies. He is also a member of the Woodbury Football Leadership Council, a program that has helped to enhance his leadership skills. Since his sophomore year, Jordan has met with representatives from an organization called, A Few Good Men. Through these meetings, he has learned the value of hard work and that leadership means helping others. He was chosen by his coach to receive an award for his participation in A Few Good Men. Outside of school, Jordan and his football team have cleaned trash from the highways, and he on his own has donated to a dog shelter and volunteered for the Woodbury midget football team. Jordan plans to use his leadership and service qualities to help make the world a better place.