Tennessee's Kaylee Marie Radzyminski of Cleveland Named One of America's Top Ten Youth Volunteers

Business Wire, May 5, 2008

State's Jessica Markwood Also Honored During Four-Day Celebration, With Tribute From Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

WASHINGTON -- Kaylee Marie Radzyminski, 16, of Cleveland was named one of America's top ten youth volunteers for 2008 in a ceremony today at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, receiving a national Prudential Spirit of Community Award for her outstanding volunteer community service. Selected from a field of close to 20,000 applicants across the country, she received a personal award of $5,000, an engraved gold medallion, a crystal trophy for her school, and a $5,000 grant from The Prudential Foundation for a nonprofit charitable organization of her choice.

Also honored in Washington was Jessica Markwood, 14, of Old Hickory. She and Kaylee Marie were named Tennessee's top youth volunteers in February, and were recognized last night at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, along with the top two youth volunteers of every other state and the District of Columbia. At that event, the Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees for 2008 were presented with $1,000 awards, and congratulated by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. The honorees also received engraved silver medallions and an all-expense-paid trip with their parents to Washington, D.C., for this week's recognition events.

Conducted in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards were created 13 years ago by Prudential Financial, Inc. to encourage youth volunteerism and to identify and reward young role models. Since then, the program has honored more than 80,000 young volunteers at the local, state and national level.

"Kaylee Marie and Jessica are inspiring examples of young Americans who care deeply about the needs of others and who have taken the initiative to help meet those needs," said Prudential Chairman Arthur F. Ryan. "By honoring them, we hope not only to give them the recognition they so richly deserve, but also to inspire others to follow their example."

Kaylee Marie, a junior at Cleveland High School, launched a CD and DVD collection campaign that has spread across the country and resulted in the shipment of more than 170,000 discs - worth over $2.5 million - to U.S. soldiers overseas. While Kaylee Marie was attending a Sea Cadet training program in 2005, she met military personnel who had just returned home, and she learned that what they missed most overseas was entertainment. "I began to brainstorm," she said. "I first collected my CDs and DVDs, then my friends collected theirs, then my school, and it eventually made its way to the community, the state, and now it has become a nationwide campaign."

Kaylee Marie has solicited donations by speaking at churches, schools and clubs, organizing collection drives and contacting local news media. Currently, her post office box receives about 2,000 CDs and DVDs each week. With her mother's help, Kaylee Marie sorts, packs and ships out about 10 boxes every Saturday. In addition, more than 200 "satellite" locations across the U.S. - schools, churches, clubs, radio stations, Sea Cadet units and other organizations - have joined Kaylee Marie's "Tunes 4 the Troops" campaign, collecting discs in their areas and shipping them directly to service personnel abroad. "I have always had a special place in my heart for the men and women who serve our country," Kaylee said. "There is no reason why I can't do a little something to give back."

Jessica, an eighth-grader at Donelson Christian Academy in Nashville, was a key member of a church group that traveled to southern Mississippi to help repair and restore homes, yards and a church devastated by Hurricane Katrina. When it was suggested that Jessica's church youth group assist hurricane victims in Pearlington, Miss., "I just knew that I had to go," Jessica said. But she was unprepared for the devastation she found there. "The area was utterly destroyed. Everywhere you looked, there were little pieces of life, broken and rusted on the ground," she said.

Jessica and her fellow group members set to work picking up trash, cleaning yards and trying to salvage items worth saving. Jessica spent hours scrubbing rust and dirt off of valuable china. In addition, she and her group endured bugs and heat to put up drywall in ravaged houses and apply paint primer to walls. They also cleared land and laid the foundation for a new church, and began the rebuilding process. "We worked so incredibly hard," said Jessica. "No one deserves to have their dreams ripped out from under them. I wanted to do everything I could to restore normal life, if not better life, to these people."

Applications for the 2008 awards program were submitted last fall through schools, Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and Volunteer Centers affiliated with the Points of Light & Hands On Network. The top middle level and high school applicants in each state and the District of Columbia were announced in February. These 102 State Honorees are in Washington this week with their parents for four days of special recognition events.