State Honoree

Ashly Westerman, 13, of Wyoming, Minn., an eighth-grader at Southwest Junior High School in Forest Lake, helped plan and raise money for a church mission to an Indian reservation in the state of Wyoming, and then painted houses, provided children's activities, and delivered other services while participating in the weeklong mission last July. "It was a community where people needed help," she said. "When I saw the houses they were living in and how they lived, I was shocked, because no one should have to live like that."

Before the trip began, Ashly conducted research to help plan the arrangements. Then she helped conduct several fund-raisers to pay the mission expenses, including a carwash, a spaghetti dinner, a scrapbooking day, and a silent auction. Once her team arrived at the Wind River Reservation, Ashly assisted in forming a "kid's club" where Indian children could come to play games, sing songs, listen to storybooks, and do arts and crafts projects. When those sessions were over, she helped paint two newly built houses. She and other church members also delivered donated food and spent time with elderly residents of a reservation nursing home. "We did a good thing by going on this mission trip," said Ashly. "We learned a lot about caring for others."