Iowa's Talia Leman of Waukee Named One of America's Top Ten Youth Volunteers

Business Wire, May 5, 2008

State's Sam Wagner Also Honored During Four-Day Celebration, with Tribute from Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

WASHINGTON -- Talia Leman, 13, of Waukee 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 Sam Wagner, 18, of Davenport. He and Talia were named Iowa'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.

"Talia and Sam 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."

Talia, a seventh-grader at The Academy in Des Moines, started an organization called "RandomKid" that seeks to educate, motivate and unify young people around the world to work on a broad spectrum of pressing needs. She began two years ago by encouraging kids in her area to trick-or-treat for coins instead of candy on Halloween, and donate the money to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. After her cause was publicized by a Midwest grocery chain, Iowa's governor and NBC's "The Today Show," kids across the country reportedly raised millions of dollars for Katrina victims.

With the help of an adult adviser, Talia then established a nonprofit organization and created a Web site (www.randomkid.org) that solicits support from young people everywhere for projects such as selling kid-designed and -manufactured key chains to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, raising money to build a school in Cambodia, finding homes for stray pets, and collecting DVDs for soldiers overseas. One of Talia's biggest current projects involves encouraging schools across the country to make and sell their own private-labeled bottled-water products to help fund clean-water technologies in distressed areas of the world. She's also working on setting up a "mini-United Nations" made up of young delegates from around the world who work together to address global children's issues. "If we want a better world, we need to know that the world does belong to us, and that we have the power to make it better," said Talia.

Sam, a senior at Assumption High School, organized a daylong car wash and then sought donation pledges for each washed car, bringing in more than $18,000 to help Habitat for Humanity build a house for a low-income family. Sam was moved to action when he witnessed a homeless man asking for money on a subway train in Atlanta. "It was quite disturbing to see him walk past row after row of people and receive nothing," said Sam, who had nothing but a quarter in his pocket to give. "After this experience, I wanted to make sure that this would never happen again - I wanted to fight poverty," he said.

One of the best ways to do that, Sam decided, would be to provide a home for a needy family. He rallied the support of his church's youth group, contacted Habitat for Humanity, publicized his "Car Wash for Humanity" project through the news media, and began visiting Catholic churches in the Davenport area every Sunday morning to ask parishioners to pledge 5 cents for each car washed. On June 9 last year, nearly 50 volunteers washed 506 cars free of charge at two locations, and after all the donation pledges were collected, Sam presented a check for $18,000 to Habitat for Humanity at the groundbreaking of a home for a single mother and her daughter. "I will always remember the smiles on their faces and the true happiness they exhibited," said Sam.

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.