Students encouraged to apply for Prudential Spirit of Community Awards

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards recognize students in grades 5 through 12 who have made meaningful contributions to their communities through volunteer service within the past 12 months. The program, sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), was created in 1995 to recognize middle-level and high school students for helping people in need, promoting health and safety, protecting the environment or volunteering in other ways. The awards are presented annually on the local, state and national levels.

Applicants for 2017 must complete an online application (which can be found at http://spirit.prudential.com and www.nassp.org/spirit) by Nov. 8, 2016, and then submit that application for certification to a middle or high school principal, Girl Scout council, county 4-H agent, American Red Cross chapter, YMCA or HandsOn Network affiliate. Paper applications can be requested by calling 877-525-8491.

Participating schools and local organizations will select Local Honorees in early November and present them with Certificates of Achievement. Those Local Honorees also will receive the President's Volunteer Service Award from U.S. President Barack Obama, if they have contributed the minimum number of volunteer hours to qualify (26 hours for age 10 and younger, 50 hours for ages 11 to 15 and 100 hours for older students). All Local Honorees are then reviewed by a state-level judging committee, which will name the top two candidates from each state and the District of Columbia – one high school student and one middle-level student – as State Honorees on Feb. 7, 2017. Those State Honorees will receive $1,000 awards, engraved silver medallions and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., with a parent/guardian for four days of recognition events from May 6 to 9, 2017. Distinguished Finalists at the state level will receive bronze medallions, and runners-up will receive Certificates of Excellence.

In Washington, a distinguished national selection committee will name 10 of the 102 State Honorees as America’s top youth volunteers of the year. Those National Honorees will receive additional awards of $5,000, gold medallions, crystal trophies for their nominating schools or organizations and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit charitable organizations of their choice.

For more information about the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, go to http://tinyurl.com/hevccky.