[Salt Lake City] – In recognition of receiving the Presidential Volunteer Service Award, Lt. Governor Greg Bell and the Utah Commission on Volunteers are honoring three outstanding youth on September 27th, 2012 with a private luncheon held in their honor. The awardees contributed the most hours of volunteer service in their age category between June 1 and August 31 as part of the Utah Summer of Service campaign. This year hundreds of youth volunteers participated throughout the state in the program and over 10,000 hours were totaled.
Sierra, Jory Peppelaar, and Becky Payne, recorded the most service hours in their age categories over the past three months, earning both a Presidential Service Award and lunch with Lt. Governor Bell.
Sierra, age 12 from Ogden, volunteered over 400 hours at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. As tasks were taught and assigned to Sierra, such as species identification, food preparation, weighing diets, and charting food intake, she would work diligently to master them and want to learn more.
Jory Peppelaar, age 17 from Richfield, volunteered almost 300 hours at various events in Utah and throughout the world. Jory spent time teaching kids all over Utah with 4-H, assisting people with muscular dystrophy and even participated in humanitarian work in Cambodia.
“Simple acts of service can be the most rewarding,” Peppelaar said. “Each was a rewarding experience that I wouldn’t change for the world. Even though I took on some big projects, some of the greatest rewards were just getting to know the people I served and seeing the change I could make for a child or a community.”
Becky Payne age 24 from Roy, spent her summer volunteering over 250 hours at the Living Planet Aquarium. Some of Becky’s duties included prepping and feeding fish and other animals, keeping systems clean. This past summer Becky had the opportunity to design and construct her own system.
What started out as a curiosity about Zoology and an opportunity for networking ended up in a realization that Payne wanted to pursue a career in this line of work.
“After doing it for my first summer I fell in love with the job and the work,” Payne said.
“Volunteering is at the heart and soul of Utahns from a young age, as evidenced by these volunteers,” says Allie Dixon, Youth Engagement Chair for the Commission. “We hope their examples serve as inspiration for all of us to increase our level of volunteerism in our local communities no matter what our age may be.”
In addition to the three top volunteers, all volunteers ages 5 to 25 who logged minimum hour requirements for their age group were honored with a Presidential Service Award and Recognition Pin.
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