State Honoree

Marleah Mullen, 14, of Wichita, Kan., an eighth-grader at Pleasant Valley Middle School, helped lead a group of students in sprucing up their school grounds on Saturdays, during lunch break on school days, and over the summer. "I have always loved to do things to help, whether at church, school, home, or anywhere else," said Marleah. So when her school's Student Council and Honor Society began talking about improving the school's appearance, Marleah jumped on the idea. "I am very proud of my school and wished others would be, too," she said.Marleah and several other students spent many lunch periods and Saturdays picking up trash in the schoolyard. In the fall, they planted bulbs in the school courtyards, trimmed trees and shrubs, pulled weeds, and raked leaves. In the spring, they painted hopscotch and four-square lines on the pavement, and painted the school's basketball backboards. And over the summer, Marleah and her helpers spent six weeks paintingrandom designs on old concrete benches under a covered patio, and painting a huge mural in the school cafeteria. "We had to deal with extreme cold and heat, major humidity and miserable dryness," said Marleah. Sometimes just two or three students would show up to work, but other times there were 10 or 12, "but even with a minimal amount of help, we still did a great job," she said.