[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 31, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING THE VOLUNTEER EFFORTS OF CHEYNE VALENTINE AND PAMELA FAWNS 
             WITH THE PRUDENTIAL SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY AWARD

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNY REHBERG

                               of montana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 31, 2009

  Mr. REHBERG. Madam Speaker, I rise to congratulate and honor two 
young students from my district who have achieved national recognition 
for exemplary volunteer service in their communities. Cheyne Valentine 
of Bigfork, Montana and Pamela Fawns of Corvallis, Montana, have been 
named as Montana's top youth volunteers by The 2009 Prudential Spirit 
of Community Awards program. This is an annual honor conferred on the 
most impressive student volunteers in each state and the District of 
Columbia.
  Mr. Valentine was nominated by the American Red Cross of Montana in 
Great Falls, and Pamela was nominated by the Ravalli County 4-H in 
Hamilton. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved 
silver medallion and an all-expenses-paid trip in early May to 
Washington, D.C., where they will join honorees from each of the other 
states and 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.
  As a member of the American Red Cross of Montana and a senior at 
Bigfork High School, Cheyne helped spearhead a community campaign that 
collected $4,400 to purchase two heart defibrillators for his school 
and provide CPR training for coaches, after his best friend suffered a 
heart attack during football practice and later died. When his friend, 
Jeff, collapsed on the field, Cheyne discovered that school personnel 
had neither the training nor equipment to deal with such an emergency. 
``I am certain that if the coach had been trained in CPR and there had 
been a defibrillator on the field, the outcome for my friend would have 
been different,'' he said. Cheyne began seeking donations to pay for 
two automatic external defibrillators and training for his school's 
coaches. He and his mother posted 500 fliers, spoke to hundreds of 
community members and wrote columns and letters to editors of local 
newspapers. The defibrillators purchased with the donations from the 
fundraising drive were presented to Bigfork High School in December, 
2008. Meanwhile, Cheyne also has begun working to persuade state 
legislators to pass a law requiring AEDs at all school athletic events 
and training for all coaches in Montana. ``I have started the ball 
rolling in this community,'' said Cheyne, ``and it will continue until 
all schools in Montana make these safety changes.''
  Ms. Fawns, a member of the Ravalli County 4-H and a seventh grader at 
Valley Oak Academy High School in Corvallis, creates floral 
arrangements to promote and raise funds for 4-H and other school 
projects. `` I have always had a joy in creating art with flowers 
because flower arrangements lighten up your mood and can make people 
feel happy when they are ill or sad,'' said Pamela, who comes from a 
long line of horticulturists. To gain more experience in floral design, 
Pamela persuaded a local florist to let her work as a volunteer intern. 
After learning first-hand about selecting, processing and arranging 
flowers, she started to think about ways she could use her skills to 
raise money for community projects. Through flower sales, Pamela was 
able to generate funds for a community meal project and new sports 
equipment for her school. She also realized how effective flowers are 
in motivating volunteers, so she began making arrangements for adult 
volunteers in her community. ``I recognized that flowers, unlike other 
gifts, could really have a brightening effect on people's lives,'' she 
said.
  In light of numerous statistics indicating Americans today are less 
involved in their communities than they once were, it is vital that we 
encourage and support the kind of selfless contributions these young 
citizens have made. People of all ages need to think more about how we, 
as individual citizens, can work together at the local level to ensure 
the health and vitality of our own communities. Young volunteers like 
Cheyne and Pamela are inspiring examples to all of us, and are among 
our brightest hopes for a better tomorrow.
  The program that brought these young volunteers to our attention--The 
Prudential Spirit of Community Awards--was created by Prudential 
Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary 
School Principals in 1995 to impress upon all youth volunteers that 
their contributions are critically important and highly valued, and to 
inspire other young people to follow their example. Over the past 14 
years, the program has become the nation's largest youth recognition 
effort based solely on community service and has honored more than 
80,000 young volunteers at the local, state and national level.
  Mr. Valentine and Ms. Fawns should be extremely proud to have been 
singled out from the thousands of dedicated volunteers who participated 
in this year's program. I heartily applaud both of them for their 
initiative in seeking to make their communities better places to live. 
Their actions show that young Americans can--and do--play important 
roles in our communities.

                          ____________________