Volunteer takes home the gold

Jeff Benson

Newport Elementary School fifth-grader Kyla Kerr needed 100 hours of

volunteer service this year to qualify for her school’s only

President’s Volunteer Service Award gold medal.

But she racked up 180 hours by getting involved in a handful of

community causes -- instead of playing sports like she usually does

in the summertime.

“It’s really good to help people, because a lot of people don’t

have homes and families, and they’re alone,” Kyla, 10, said.

Kyla and 73 of her classmates were honored for their hours of

community service in a President’s Volunteer Service Awards ceremony

Friday morning at the school. The students combined for 2,173 hours

of unpaid service.

Kyla had difficulty remembering all of the ways she got involved

this year. She volunteered for the Community Animal Network and the

Balboa Public Library, made cookies and sandwiches for Costa

Mesa-based shelter Share Our Selves, collected items for Goodwill,

went door-to-door to help raise money for people who can’t afford

eyeglasses and brought Christmas presents to a local rehabilitation

home.

Each of the 27 students who volunteered for more than 50 hours

received a bronze pin, a personalized certificate of achievement, a

note of congratulations from President George W. Bush, a letter from

the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation and a

proclamation from the city of Newport Beach and Mayor Tod Ridgeway.

Those who volunteered fewer than 50 hours received a letter from

the city of Newport Beach.

The President’s Volunteer Service Award program was created to

recognize the millions of Americans who have made a sustained

commitment to volunteer, Principal Amy Nagy said.

“It has been proven that if we want our children to become adults

who care about their communities we must teach them to value giving

to others at a very early age,” Nagy said. “Once our children have

experienced service, they feel compassion for people in need and

believe they can make a difference -- and boy, did they ever.”

Nearly 200 forms of volunteerism were represented among the 74

students honored at Friday’s ceremony. Some students wrote to men and

women fighting overseas and to firefighters who battled last year’s

wildfires; donated earnings from their lemonade stands the

Make-A-Wish Foundation; planted flowers for their neighbors;

delivered canned foods to local food banks; and tutored other

children, among other services.

Third-grader Makenna Flotron, 8, won the only President’s

Volunteer Service silver award for volunteering more than 75 hours at

the Red Cross Disaster Center, the Down Syndrome Assn., the Second

Harvest Food Bank, the Orange County Food Bank and several other

causes.

Ridgeway and his wife, Kay, were guests of honor at the ceremony.

Their two children, Madison and Scott, attend the school and each

received bronze pins, because they volunteered more than 50 hours.

“I think today it’s fitting to salute the many acts of generosity

by the children of Newport Elementary,” Ridgeway told all the

students. “You have shown us why we should work hard to encourage

voluntary action in America. The city of Newport Beach is

particularly honored to have each of you who have gone out and done

so much to recover this great American tradition. You have made us

proud.”