VERMONT’S TOP TWO YOUTH VOLUNTEERS SELECTED IN 14th

ANNUAL NATIONAL AWARDS PROGRAM

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Last month, Courtney Devoid, 16, of Hinesburg and Lydia Ham, 14, of Sheffield were named Vermont’s top two youth volunteers for 2009 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 14th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Devoid was nominated by Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol, and Ham was nominated by Miller’s Run School in Sheffield. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees - one middle level and one high school youth - from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America’s top youth volunteers for 2009 at that time.

Devoid is a leader in a student organization that is promoting the use of biomass pellets as a home-heating fuel in Vermont and, in a pilot project, has installed pellet-burning stoves in the homes of four low income families. “The use of fossil fuels is not okay with me,” she said. “We can and must use renewable energy for the good of the earth.”

Ham, a home-schooled eighth-grader, has raised money, collected goods and worked on construction projects for an orphanage in Guatemala over the past three years. Ham has traveled to Guatemala three times as part of a construction team with her grandfather’s church to build duplexes at The Shadow of His Wings Orphanage, creating facilities for an additional 72 rescued girls. Ham raised money by working at a local fair, speaking to churches and schools, and contacting businesses for donations.