[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1122]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 1122]]

    MICHIGAN STUDENTS HONORED AS EXEMPLARY YOUTH VOLUNTEERS BY THE 
                 PRUDENTIAL SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY AWARDS

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise to congratulate and honor 
two young Michigan students who have achieved national recognition for 
exemplary volunteer service in their communities. Jonathan Quarles of 
Flint and Gopalkrishna Trivedi of Grosse Pointe Park have just been 
named State Honorees in The 2000 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards 
program, an annual honor conferred on only one high school student and 
one middle-level student in each state, the District of Columbia and 
Puerto Rico.
  Mr. Quarles, a high school senior at Flint Northern High School, 
founded Students Against Violence Everywhere (S.A.V.E.), a group that 
helps discourage crime through creative presentations. Since the group 
was founded in 1997, they have worked in collaboration with many 
organizations, including leadership workshops. ``In the past year, not 
one teen was killed by violence in Flint,'' says Jonathan.
  Mr. Trivedi, an eighth-grader at Pierce Middle School, repaired and 
upgraded 120 obsolete computers to help non-English speaking students 
learn and work in English. He encouraged two of his computer classmates 
to help with the project, and the three students proceeded to carry the 
outdated computers from the school basement to the computer lab. They 
then inspected each computer to diagnose problems, and replaced all 
defective parts. Once the computers were repaired, Gopal then formatted 
the hard drives, installed CD-ROM's, and loaded each with an operating 
system. Most of these modified computers were donated to students who 
had recently arrived from Albania with very few financial resources. 
Gopal donated the rest of the computers to the school's science lab and 
the computer keyboarding lab. ``It is a really good feeling when 
sacrifices are made for other people and those sacrifices actually 
change some lives for the better,'' said Gopal recently.
  In light of numerous statistics that indicate Americans today are 
less involved in their communities than they once were, it's vital that 
we encourage and support the kind of selfless contributions these young 
people 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 towns and neighborhoods. Young 
volunteers like Mr. Quarles and Mr. Trivedi are inspiring examples to 
all of us, and are among our brightest hopes for a better tomorrow.
  The program that brought these young role models to our attention--
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards--was created by The 
Prudential Insurance Company of America in partnership with the 
National Association of Secondary School Principals in 1995 to impress 
upon youth volunteers that their contributions are critically important 
and highly valued, and to inspire other young people to follow their 
example. In only five years, the program has become the nation's 
largest youth recognition effort based solely on community service, 
with nearly 75,000 youngsters participating since its inception.
  Mr. Quarles and Mr. Trivedi should be extremely proud to have been 
singled out from such a large group of dedicated volunteers. As part of 
their recognition, they will come to Washington in early May along with 
other year-2000 Spirit of Community honorees from across the country, 
for several days of special events, including a Congressional breakfast 
reception on Capitol Hill. While here in Washington, ten will be named 
America's top youth volunteers of the year by a distinguished national 
service selection committee chaired by Senators Byron Douglas of North 
Dakota and Susan Collins of Maine.
  I heartily applaud Mr. Quarles and Mr. Trivedi for their initiative 
in seeking to make their communities better places to live, and for the 
positive impact they have had on the lives of others. I would also like 
to salute other young people in my state who were named Distinguished 
Finalists by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards for their 
outstanding volunteer service. They are: Nupur Kanodia of Rochester 
Hills, Lauren Lubowicki of Fenton, David Sherman of Dearborn, Korina 
Smith of Douglas, Brooke Southgate of Unionville, and Perry Williams of 
Grand Rapids.
  All of these young people have demonstrated a level of commitment and 
accomplishment that is truly extraordinary in today's world. They 
deserve our sincere admiration and respect. Their actions show that 
young Americans can--and do--play important roles in their communities, 
and that America's community spirit continues to hold tremendous 
promise for the future.

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