[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 7882]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF HALEY WHATLEY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL C. BURGESS

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 6, 2008

  Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate and honor a 
young student from my district who has achieved national recognition 
for exemplary volunteer service in her community. Haley Whatley of 
North Richland Hills has just been named one of the top two honorees in 
Texas by The 2008 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, an 
annual honor conferred on the most impressive student volunteers in 
each state and the District of Columbia.
  Haley, a seventh-grader, was nominated by Smithfield Middle School in 
North Richland Hills. In honor of this achievement, Haley will receive 
a $1,000 reward and an engraved silver medallion. She also won a trip 
to Washington D.C. this May to join the other top nominees from around 
the country. All the honorees will attend several national recognition 
events and ten of the participants will be named America's top youth 
volunteers for 2008.
  Haley's passion for volunteering began at a young age. When she was 
six-years-old, Haley saw a television commercial about kids with 
cancer, and wanted to do something to cheer up the young patients. She 
began collecting stuffed bunnies during an Easter campaign, and 
collected 600 bunnies her first year. Since then, she has found several 
corporate sponsors, spoken to more than 50 civic groups, and enlisted 
the help of more than 30 ``bunny ambassadors'' to help collect bunnies 
from the community each year. Her tireless efforts have yielded more 
than 13,000 bunnies for sick children in the last 7 years.
  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 12 
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.
  Ms. Whatley should be extremely proud to have been selected from the 
thousands of dedicated volunteers who participated in this year's 
program. I sincerely thank Haley for her initiative in seeking to make 
her community a better place to live, and for the positive impact she 
has had on the lives of others. She has demonstrated a level of 
commitment and accomplishment that is truly extraordinary in today's 
world, and deserves our sincere admiration and respect. It is an honor 
to represent such an extraordinary young person in the 26th district of 
Texas, and I earnestly look forward to seeing the present and future 
results of her tremendous promise.

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