The National 2016 State Leadership Award from Voices for National Service was awarded to Governor and First Lady McAuliffe in recognition of their leadership roles in promoting national service. Governor McAuliffe was an integral part of the Commonwealth becoming the first state recognized as an Employer of National Service and for sponsoring the Gover ...
Volunteer: Inesha Premaratne (Richmond) Inesha Premaratne is a 16-year-old student at Henrico High School and founder of the club, “Roots Before Branches.” The summer between her freshman and sophomore years, Inesha saw an unused piece of land on the school campus and created a service opportunity by planting a garden to support a nationwide effort ...
Youth Volunteers: Emily Claire Lodge (Herndon) When Emily Lodge was nine years old, she heard Sister Genevieve of the Little Sisters of the Poor speak at church about caring for the elderly poor and how they relied on charitable donations to carry out that mission. Emily told her parents that she wanted to help, but didn’t know how she could since s ...
Youth Volunteer: Katherine "Katie" R. Goodman (Ashland) For a twelve-year-old, Katie Goodman has been described as a “little dynamo.” Despite the fact that she was only ten-years-old when she started her mission, she is doing more to feed the hungry than many adults. After seeing television commercials about hunger and its consequences, Katie was in ...
Faith Based Volunteer Group: New Life for Youth, Inc. (Richmond) For thousands of young men and women struggling with addiction, the road to recovery leads to New Life for Youth, Inc. For more than forty years, New Life for Youth has successfully assisted broken families by providing spiritual, educational and job training for Virginians with subst ...
Youth Volunteer: Unity Bowling (Henrico) For as long as anyone can remember, Unity Bowling has been passionate about her beliefs and a powerhouse of ideas to make positive changes in the world. When she was just nine years old she began spearheading a book drive for Read Aloud Virginia. This began a crusade which continues today to attack the plague ...
Adult Volunteer: Jacqueline Cheshire (Great Falls) To a person with a disability, a service dog is the gift of independence, freedom and companionship. Without the 24/7 commitment of volunteers like Jackie Cheshire, these dogs wouldn’t get the training required to serve those in need. Jackie, currently raising her sixth puppy to be a service d ...
When the devastating tornadoes swept through Appomattox County last week, hundreds of volunteers immediately appeared to support the affected families. Among the volunteers, 16 ready-to-serve AmeriCorps members were deployed to assist with debris removal and cleanup. Virginia State Parks Virginia Service and Conservation Corps AmeriCorps program worked ...
Serious Clydarius Pinchback, a sixth-grader at OT Bonner Danville Middle school, has a dream. He dreams of a world where we “will live in peace and harmony and respect each other” and we “will not have to feel the pain and anguish of war.” Showing wisdom and compassion beyond his 11 years, Serious was awarded the top prize for his submission to a MLK D ...