Top Youth Volunteer

For the past 15 years, the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards have been given to young people nationwide in recognition of their outstanding volunteer efforts.

Holley:  I volunteer at  Comfort Zone Camp, which is a bereavement camp for children who have lost a parent or sibling.

Samantha Holley is 18.  She was 11 when her father died and she was sent, unwillingly, to a Comfort Zone camp.

Holley:  I shared my story for the first time, which felt completely amazing.  I had never shared my story from my perspective.  All of my friends knew it, or thought they knew it,  and they never heard it from my point of view.

At 15 she became a volunteer and she has never stopped, in fact after 20 camps she’s now Head Junior Counselor.

Holley:  I see kids who are just like me and I see that moment when they realize they are not alone.  Volunteering has helped me just as much as going as a camper has.

As a state winner, Holley will receive a $1,000, a medallion, and an all-expense paid trip to Washington with winners from across the country.  Ten of them will be named America’s Top Youth Volunteers for 2010.

John Ogle, WCVE news