2009 National Honorees

• High School National Honorees
• Middle Level National Honorees

Brittany Bergquist, 18, of Norwell, Mass., a senior at Norwell High School, co-founded a nonprofit organization that has purchased nearly 700,000 prepaid phone cards for American servicemen and women by collecting and recycling used cell phones. Five years ago, Brittany saw a TV news story about a young soldier stationed in the Middle East who was struggling to pay a large cell phone bill. “I knew I had to do something to help him and all the other soldiers trying to keep in touch with loved ones while far away from home,” she said. Brittany told her parents she wanted to use her piggybank savings to help the soldier pay his bill, and then she and her younger brother organized car washes and yard and bake sales to raise more money.

Soon, Brittany realized that they could help many more soldiers by recycling used cell phones and using the proceeds to buy phone cards. She and her brother found a recycling company to purchase donated phones, designed a website to solicit phones (www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com), recruited volunteers in all 50 states and in Canada to set up collection sites, and secured a large donation and other assistance from a phone company. So far, the Bergquist siblings have sent one-hour phone cards worth more than $2.5 million to troops serving at military bases and recuperating in hospitals throughout the world. At the same time, they have helped the environment by keeping toxic chemicals in cell phones out of landfills. “Cell Phones for Soldiers will be around as long as there are troops deployed,” said Brittany. “The great feeling you get from making a difference in the lives of others is more powerful than anything else you can do.”

Jeremy Bui, 18, of Enfield, Conn., a senior at Enfield High School, co-founded the Viet-Sun Foundation and has raised nearly $2,000 to fund scholarships for poor children in Vietnam. Jeremy’s mother and father grew up in that country and escaped its poverty to become successful in America. In the summer of 2007, they took their children to Vietnam for the first time. “Our parents had decided we were old enough to witness the struggles Vietnamese peasants endure daily,” said Jeremy. But he was not prepared for the devastating poverty he witnessed. He and his family gave rice and money to the villagers, but Jeremy decided that the only way to help the children rise above a life of poverty was to give them an education.

Working with his two brothers, Jeremy filed the legal paperwork for the Viet-Sun Foundation, and then began raising money by organizing events such as a kickball tournament and a walkathon, and by recruiting hundreds of fellow students at his school to participate. They also set up a website (www.vietsunfoundation.org) that has attracted donations from as far away as Florida and California. Jeremy has spent many nights reviewing applications from Vietnamese children, and so far has awarded elementary-school scholarships to six of them. The foundation also has purchased a year’s worth of textbooks and school supplies for four other Vietnamese students. 

Shardy Camargo, 18, of Orlando, Fla., a senior at Maynard Evans High School, led a group of 40 high school students in writing and publishing a book about homeless people after experiencing homelessness herself a few years earlier. “During my freshman year in high school, we lost everything we had, and my mother took me out of school until she could find a stable place to live,” said Shardy. Soon after, she began volunteering at the Coalition for the Homeless in Orlando, and formed strong bonds with the families there. “I wanted to truly help the families at the coalition and I knew I had to inspire others to really make a change,” Shardy said.

So, as her school’s Beta Club vice president, Shardy encouraged fellow club members to help write a book to raise awareness of homelessness. She and about 40 other student authors went to the homeless shelter to interview 30 adults, and then attended two workshops with University of Florida professors to begin the writing process. Afterward, Shardy spent several months editing the students’ chapters, and the book, “Everyone Has a Story to Tell,” was published in 2007. Since then, Shardy has arranged presentations and book signings at local libraries and has spoken at service-learning conferences. She has also created and distributed pamphlets describing resources for the homeless, and is now working on a sequel and a documentary film on homelessness. “We cannot stand idle as people suffer in need of simple life necessities,” she said. “If people do not have a foundation, if people do not have homes to live in, they can go nowhere.”

Colin Leslie, 17, of Rye, N.Y., a junior at Rye High School, has raised more than $150,000 for the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University over the past three years by organizing an annual walkathon in his community. When he was 14, Colin began experiencing excruciating joint pain and migraine headaches. After four months of visits to many specialists, he was finally diagnosed with celiac disease, a genetic autoimmune disorder triggered by eating gluten from wheat, barley, or rye. The difficulty that doctors had in diagnosing his ailment convinced Colin that something needed to be done to increase awareness of celiac. He decided on a walkathon.

Colin contacted city officials, met with the police commissioner, and persuaded his school district to let him use his high school for the event. Then he obtained insurance, arranged for parking and shuttle buses, and began publicizing the walk by posting on blogs and websites, making posters, and contacting local support groups. About 1,000 people have come to the Colin Leslie Walk for Celiac Disease each year, not only to walk and contribute, but also to attend education sessions conducted by doctors and nutritionists and to enjoy a gluten-free food fair. One year’s event also featured a blood screening that diagnosed more than 60 people with celiac disease. “All of the money raised will go toward promoting awareness of celiac disease and research so that one day a cure will hopefully be found,” said Colin.

Melissa Monette, 16, of Mililani, Hawaii, a junior at Mililani High School, founded a nonprofit organization that has provided more than 13,000 pounds of fresh produce and canned goods to low-income senior citizens and homeless people over the past two years. Melissa became aware of poverty in her community by participating in church, school, and Girl Scout programs to aid the needy. But the problem really hit home when her own grandmother turned to a food pantry for help and was denied assistance because she was not homeless. “It is very difficult and traumatic for (seniors) when they get turned away from nonprofit agencies distributing food because they are not poor enough to qualify,” said Melissa.

After identifying places where low-income seniors live, Melissa arranged for staff members at local agencies to help deliver the food she would collect. Then she began looking for food donations. She asked hundreds of homeowners if she could harvest the excess fruits and vegetables from their yards and gardens; sent flyers to farms and supermarkets; asked schools and churches to sponsor canned-food drives; made presentations at neighborhood board meetings; and set up a website. Melissa recruited fellow students to help her collect and deliver the donations. In addition, she arranged for nutritionists to speak to senior citizens about healthy eating, and developed a monthly aerobic exercise program to help them stay in shape. “All it takes is one individual to provide the spark, and the power of one becomes the power of many,” said Melissa.

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Amanda LaMunyon, 14, of Enid, Okla., an eighth-grader at Oklahoma Bible Academy, performs at charitable events, sells cards and prints of her paintings to raise money for sick children, and draws upon her experience with autism to educate others about the disorder. After Amanda was diagnosed at age 8 with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, her parents encouraged various activities to find something that would help her focus. “Thankfully, they found that I could paint, and I learned to focus on something I loved,” Amanda said. She discovered she had the ability to help others when she gave one of her paintings to a former teacher who had cancer and later learned that it had greatly lifted her spirits while she was dying. “I couldn’t believe something I had done meant so much,” she said. “This changed the entire direction of my life.”

Amanda now paints her impressions of songs she likes, and contributes her artistic, singing, and speaking talents to a wide variety of causes. She has participated in many events for the Children’s Miracle Network and other charities, created a website to sell copies of her artwork for the benefit of children’s health programs (www.amandalamunyon.com), and performed at nursing homes. She also has spoken to United Nations delegates to promote awareness of autism. “I do not look at myself as a person with a disability,” said Amanda. “I see myself as someone with something to give.”

Morgan Mariner, 13, of Douglas, Wyo., a member of the Converse County 4-H and an eighth-grader at Douglas Middle School, has conducted a vigorous campaign over the past three years against the problem of bullying in schools. Morgan began her campaign after seeing the impact that bullying had on her little brother when he was a third-grader. “He was bullied terribly,” she said. “It broke my heart to see him so sad and hate school so much.” She knew she could make a difference if given the chance to speak out and share his story. So she started giving speeches at elementary schools, 4-H gatherings, student council sessions, and even PTA and city council meetings. She also traveled to other school districts in Wyoming to deliver her message that “it’s cool to be kind.” In addition, Morgan read books about kindness and bullies to pre-school children at the public library, and used her own money to buy and distribute silicone wristbands bearing the slogan, “Kind Kids Rock.”

“I think my big mouth is starting to pay off,” she said. Many of her friends have offered to help spread the word about bullies, and her school district has taken a more serious stance against bullying. In fact, her school now sells wristbands similar to hers and uses the money to buy prizes for students who exhibit kind behavior. After Morgan won the teen division of The Little Miss Wyoming Scholarship Pageant last year, the organization adopted her “Kind Kids Rock” platform, and now the other pageant winners are speaking out about bullying across the state as well. “If I was able to reach just one child and make them think twice before they decided to hurt someone else, then I succeeded,” said Morgan. “Every child has the right to feel good about themselves and no one should take that from them.”

Sean Nathan, 14, of Shreveport, La., an eighth-grader at Caddo Parish Middle Magnet School, throws birthday parties every month for children staying at a local homeless shelter. He got the idea two years ago while he and his brother were playing Christmas carols at the Providence House shelter. “Afterwards, one of the kids told us that he never got to celebrate his birthday,” said Sean. “I was shocked.” He asked the coordinator if they could start hosting birthday parties, and the “Providence House Birthday Bash” was born.

The brothers throw one party a month to celebrate the four or five children whose birthdays fall in that month. At each party, they serve pizza and cake, organize games, play music, and give out presents. Sean persuaded a few local pizza parlors to provide free or discounted pizzas for the parties, and got some fund-raising help from his church, but most of the expenses are paid with money that Sean and his brother earn by giving musical performances at functions around town. “It gives me great satisfaction to watch the kids have parties that they did not have for the first years of their lives,” said Sean.

Shelby Romero, 12, of Hutto, Tex., a member of the Williamson County 4-H in Georgetown and a seventh-grader at Farley Middle School in Hutto, organized a charity bicycle ride and other events that have raised nearly $400,000 over the past three years for a horseback-riding therapy center for disabled children. Shelby, a horse fan and rider, got the idea when she learned that her dentist’s young son received therapy for his cerebral palsy at the Ride On Center for Kids (R.O.C.K.). “I thought it would be cool to have a community service project that would help kids and horses,” she said.

Shelby began researching benefit bike rides and planning her own. She chose a route, created directional signs, and recruited volunteers to help manage the event. Then she called on local businesses for sponsorships; distributed flyers at her school, her church, and 4-H clubs; and posted notices on biking websites and in newspapers and magazines. Shelby’s Ride for R.O.C.K. was so successful that the center asked her to do it again the following year and to expand it by adding a “family day” and barn dance. With Shelby serving as chairman of the bike ride and entertainment co-chair of the other events, these activities have become the center’s main fund-raiser, generating enough money to build a covered arena and to provide scholarships to children who cannot afford therapy. “I learned that even a kid can make a difference,” she said.

Beatrice Thaman, 12, of Toledo, Ohio, a home-schooled sixth-grader, started a donation and fund-raising drive that has enabled her to provide 175,000 vitamin tablets for malnourished children in Guatemala, a year’s supply for more than 500 children. When her family adopted Beatrice’s younger sister from Guatemala, Beatrice learned about the country and its poverty, but she didn’t act until a family friend, Dr. Anne Ruch, returned from a medical mission and described the desperation there. “I felt compelled to help,” Beatrice said.

After doing some research on malnutrition, Beatrice decided that providing vitamins would be the best thing she could do. She immediately began writing to drug manufacturers to ask for free tablets and soliciting local retailers for donations. Then she gave speeches at schools in her area, raised funds at public events such as football games and Christmas parties, and even used some of her own Christmas gift money to buy vitamins. Beatrice has sent more than 175,000 vitamins to Guatemala with Dr. Ruch for distribution through schools in the villages of the Peten region. “There are so many needy children in Guatemala,” Beatrice said. “I can’t just stop because I am literally providing life for these poor children.”

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