2011 National Honorees

Each year we select a group of young Americans to the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program for national recognition based on their outstanding achievements in community service.

Year

Justin Churchman

Texas

Justin Churchman, 18, of El Paso, Texas, a senior at Coronado High School, has raised more than $48,000 and recruited more than 75 volunteers to build 18 houses in Juarez, Mexico, despite the rampant drug wars that have frightened away many other American volunteers.When he...

Sarah Cronk

Iowa

Sarah Cronk, 18, of Bettendorf, Iowa, a senior at Pleasant Valley High School, co-founded a cheerleading squad at her high school that includes students with disabilities, and then formed a nonprofit corporation that encourages teens across the country to start similar...

Jeffrey Hanson

Kansas

Jeffrey Hanson, 17, of Overland Park, Kan., a junior at Horizon Academy in Roeland Park, has generated more than $225,000 for various local and national charities over the past five years by selling and donating original paintings and other artistic creations, despite...

Aimee Matheson

Utah

Aimee Matheson, 18, of Clearfield, Utah, a senior at Clearfield High School, coordinated the building of a day-care and community center in Guatemala so that impoverished single mothers would have a safe and nurturing place for their children while they are at work. During...

Rujul Zaparde

New Jersey

Rujul Zaparde, 16, of Plainsboro, N.J., a junior at The Lawrenceville School, co-founded a nonprofit organization that has motivated more than 450 students at 23 schools to raise funds that have been used to dig over 30 water wells in rural India. Rujul traveled to India...

Rocco Fiorentino

New Jersey

Rocco Fiorentino, 14, of Voorhees, N.J., an eighth-grader at Voorhees Middle School, is a dedicated advocate for children who are blind like him or visually impaired, striving over the past nine years to increase government funding for Braille services and educate others...

Cassandra Lin

Rhode Island

Cassandra Lin, 13, of Westerly, R.I., a seventh-grader at Westerly Middle School, launched a program that collects more than 36,000 gallons of waste cooking oil a year from 95 restaurants and thousands of households in nine towns in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and...

Tyler Page

California

Tyler Page, 14, of Brentwood, Calif., an eighth-grader at J. Douglas Adams Middle School, held a car wash hoping to rescue just one child from being sold into slavery in Ghana, but ended up sparking a kids' fund-raising enterprise that has involved hundreds of young people...

Rachel Wheeler

Florida

Rachel Wheeler, 11, of Lighthouse Point, Fla., a fifth-grader at Zion Lutheran Christian School in Deerfield Beach, launched a fund-raising campaign that has raised more than $162,000 to build a new 25-home village in Leogane, Haiti, near the epicenter of the earthquake...

Glennita Williams

Illinois

Glennita Williams, 14, of South Holland, Ill., an eighth-grader at McKinley Junior High School, has collected snacks and personal care items worth more than $14,000, including more than 600 pounds of Hostess Twinkies, for shipment to American troops serving in Iraq and...

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2011 National Honorees