South Dakota's Top Two Youth Volunteers Selected in 15th Annual National Awards Program

PIERRE, S.D.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Presley Door, 18, of Brookings and Kallen Rittberger, 12, of Hermosa today were named South Dakota's top two youth volunteers for 2010 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 15th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

Presley was nominated by Brookings High School in Brookings, and Kallen was nominated by Kids Inc. 4-H Club in Hermosa. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America’s top youth volunteers for 2010 at that time.

Presley, a senior at Brookings High School, has played a key role in the operation of the Brookings Regional Humane Society since she was a freshman in high school, spending 8 to 10 hours a week cleaning, caring for animals, and performing basic medical procedures. Presley learned about the society’s need for volunteers while looking for a dog to adopt, and because she had always wanted to be a veterinarian, she signed up. “I had no idea that the shelter would instill in me a passion so strong that it would consume most of my time,” she said.

Presley started out performing routine tasks such as cleaning kennels, sweeping and dusting, grooming and socializing animals, and checking food and water. As she gained more experience, she learned to give vaccinations and medications to animals, draw blood for medical tests, and assist with simple surgeries. She also helps with fund-raising events, and sometimes travels to Indian reservations to rescue dogs and help at a spay/neuter clinic. Presley was so effective at the shelter that she was offered a part-time paid position as an animal care technician after a year, but she continues to volunteer about 10 hours a week outside of her job. “Volunteering has given me the experience and the confidence to know that I can handle a career in veterinary medicine,” said Presley.

Kallen, a seventh-grader at Custer Middle School in Custer, has taken part in a broad range of service projects benefiting senior citizens in his area through his 4-H club, church, and school. Several older people have taken an active interest in helping Kallen over the years, so “I was motivated to give back to people who had been kind and caring to me,” he said. “Then I realized that others needed help as well.”

Kallen has collected and delivered holiday meals for the elderly, raked their yards, made sweet breads to take to a nursing home, and played games with patients at a senior care facility. He also helped prepare and serve a spaghetti dinner to honor grandparents, cooked food for funerals, scraped and painted a senior citizen’s house, and made bandage-rollers for the Red Cross. In addition, he recruits other students to join his volunteer efforts, and helps his own grandparents whenever he can. “It would be really easy to make an excuse to not do things for other people,” said Kallen. “But if everyone could help each other, our whole country would be better for it.”

In addition, the program judges recognized two other South Dakota students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion:

Sarah Cork, 16, of Jefferson, a junior at Dakota Valley High School in North Sioux City, spent two weeks living with a missionary family in rural Ireland, where she helped teach at a vacation Bible school, distributed Christian magazines, participated in group meetings, worked at a church bookstore, and assisted the missionary family in other ways. After volunteering earlier on three mission trips as part of a team, Sarah decided to strike out on her own. She researched Irish culture, volunteered at a local Bible school to prepare, solicited donations for traveling expenses and other necessities, and traveled to Ireland on her own.

Jessica Loobey, 17, of Sturgis, a junior at Sturgis Brown High School, volunteers at the Sturgis Community Preschool. Jessica helps set up classrooms, prepares lesson materials, assists with art lessons and annual programs, and helps new students become comfortable in their new environment. She also helps preschoolers learn letters and sounds, colors and shapes, numbers and days of the week, and proper behavior in a classroom setting.

“People as caring and committed as these young students are critical to the future of our neighborhoods, our cities and our nation,” said John R. Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial. “By recognizing these honorees, we hope to encourage other young people – our future leaders – and all Americans to think more about the value and importance of volunteering in their communities.”

“The young people recognized by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards demonstrate an enormous capacity for giving and reaching out to those in need,” said Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “NASSP is proud to honor these student leaders because they are wonderful examples of the high caliber of young people in our nation’s schools today.”

All public and private middle level and high schools in the country, as well as all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and affiliates of HandsOn Network, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award this past November. Nearly 5,000 Local Honorees were then reviewed by an independent judging panel, which selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth.

While in Washington, D.C., the 102 State Honorees will tour the capital’s landmarks, attend a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill. In addition, 10 of them – five middle level and five high school students – will be named National Honorees on May 3 by a prestigious national selection committee. These honorees will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies, and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit, charitable organizations of their choice.

Serving on the national selection committee will be Strangfeld of Prudential; Steven Pophal, president of NASSP; Michelle Nunn, president and CEO of the Points of Light Institute & Hands On Network; Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO of the America’s Promise Alliance; Donald T. Floyd Jr., president and CEO of National 4-H Council; Pamela Farr, the American Red Cross’ national chair of volunteers; Elson Nash, associate director for project management at the Corporation for National and Community Service; Michael Cohen, president and CEO of Achieve, Inc.; and two 2009 Prudential Spirit of Community National Honorees: Shardy Camargo of Orlando, Fla., and Colin Leslie of Rye, N.Y.

In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program will distribute President’s Volunteer Service Awards to more than 2,800 of its Local Honorees this year on behalf of President Obama. The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represent the United States’ largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service. Since the program began in 1995, more than 90,000 young volunteers nationwide have been honored at the local, state or national level. Many prominent public figures have assisted in saluting these honorees over the years, including President Jimmy Carter, Barbara Bush, Magic Johnson, John Glenn, Madeleine Albright, Rudy Giuliani, Whoopi Goldberg, Colin Powell, Peyton Manning, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson and Laura Bush. The program also is conducted by Prudential subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Ireland.

For information on all of this year’s Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit spirit.prudential.com.

In existence since 1916, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is the preeminent organization of and national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and aspiring school leaders from across the United States and more than 45 countries around the world. NASSP’s mission is to promote excellence in school leadership. The National Honor Society ®, National Junior Honor Society ®, National Elementary Honor Society™, and National Association of Student Councils ® are all NASSP programs. For more information about NASSP, located in Reston, Va., visit www.principals.org or call 703-860-0200.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU) is a financial services leader with operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Leveraging its heritage of life insurance and asset management expertise, Prudential is focused on helping approximately 50 million individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth. In the United States, the company’s Rock symbol is an icon of strength, stability, expertise and innovation that has stood the test of time. Prudential's businesses offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds, investment management, and real estate services. For more information, please visit www.news.prudential.com.

Editors: Graphics depicting the award program’s logo and medallions may be downloaded from spirit.prudential.com.