[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8735]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRATULATIONS TO HALEY FARRIS

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                            HON. BILLY LONG

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 6, 2017

  Mr. LONG. Mr. 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 Farris of Oldfield 
has just been named one of the distinguished finalists in Missouri by 
The 2017 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, an annual honor 
conferred on the most impressive student volunteers in each state and 
the District of Columbia.
  Ms. Farris is being recognized for creating ``4Confidence,'' a 
program designed to help middle school students learn to love 
themselves through biweekly meetings covering topics from bullying to 
eating disorders. Ms. Farris started the group after realizing she 
wasn't the only one struggling with low self-esteem, organized pageants 
to raise money for group activities and increase the confidence of the 
young contestants she recruited from the community.
  It's vital that we encourage and support the kind of selfless 
contribution this young citizen has made. Young volunteers like Ms. 
Farris are inspiring examples to all of us, and are among our brightest 
hopes for a better tomorrow.
  The program that brought this young role model 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 22 
years, the program has become the nation's largest youth recognition 
effort based solely on community service, and has honored more than 
115,000 young volunteers at the local, state and national level.
  Ms. Farris should be extremely proud to have been singled out from 
the thousands of dedicated volunteers who participated in this year's 
program. I wish Ms. Farris luck with all her future endeavors, and urge 
my colleagues to join me in congratulating her on this momentous 
achievement.

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