Students, parents, and teachers who have taken the time to give back to their community will be recognized by the Campolindo Service Awards and the President’s Volunteer Service Awards.
The President’s Service Awards are organized by President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. Both youth and adults are eligible for the award, and in some cases groups have received the honor.
This is the 1st year Campolindo will also present a service award. According to Assistant Principal Sharon Bartlett, such an award is already in existence at Miramonte. “We developed a program where we had probably 100 students between the Presidential Service Awards, which is a national program, and there’s another lower level that is the school program,” she said.
The purpose of the school program is to recognize the people who don’t have enough hours for the national award but are still doing community service. Bartlett said, “We’ve started a Campolindo [program] because we know that there are some students who are doing wonderful work but may not have quite the hours to qualify for the Presidential Service Award, but it doesn’t make what they’re doing not valuable.”
“We say to students, ‘Service is a way to give back, it’s the obligations that we should feel for living in a community where we have so many wonderful things,'” Bartlett explained. “We say those things, we believe them, but we don’t recognize the people who do that often enough.”
Bartlett is hoping that next year, the school will start promoting the awards in the fall so that more students and parents will know about it. She believes the program will start out small but will continue to grow as more and more people become aware of it. She is also hoping that the recognitions will motivate students to put in more hours next year in order to earn a higher award.
Junior Kelly Williams qualified for the Bronze Level Presidential award. She earned her 100 hours with the National Charity League, Chabot Space and Science Center, the MVPC Mexico trip, and world language after-school tutoring. She believes that these organizations and others like them provide fun community service opportunities. She helps with public viewings at Chabot and Cal Shakes with NCL.
“I’m trying to make intern for Chabot,” Williams said. To become an intern, she will need 150 hours. “If I make intern, I will probably qualify for the next level up of the Presidential award [next year].” Williams found out about the award through an announcement on Schoolloop.
Freshman Kimberly Tang also submitted her hours. “I didn’t know what it was but I thought that since I do a lot of community service maybe my school could recognize me for doing that,” she said. “I think the award shows that kids in Moraga and Lamorinda want to give back.”
To apply for the award, students must have their hours verified by their supervisor. They must turn in verification forms with their supervisor’s contact information, signature, and a brief description of what they did.
Submissions were due Friday, April 11.