Community Leaders of the Year Honored at Spring Conference

Samantha Bowns, or Sammy, as she is known to everyone, is highly involved in both school and community service.  She’s in her senior year, and is the current ASB President of Adrian High School, and a past Eastern Region Representative to the Student Executive Council.  The community service project she is most proud of is one that, she admits, was not always fun—but she knew she made a positive difference.  She spent a day a week, plus some overnight shifts, helping to take care of a stroke victim from her community. Her advisor says that Sammy is one of those students who gives 100%, doing many of the undesirable jobs, like cleaning up after a dance. 

Amanda Ewing is a senior this year at Marist High School.  Ever since she was given the opportunity to co-ordinate a fundraiser for the victims of the Tsunami in Indonesia in 2005, she’s been spending much of her time helping others, whether it’s on a mission trip to East L.A., or working at a food bank for Lane County, or assisting with a Down Syndrome Buddy Walk.  Her proudest accomplishment is working as secretary of their fast-growing Marist Volunteer Program.  She helps to coordinate and communicate with their members.   Her current project is working with the club’s Eco Squad Cans & Bottles Recycling Program.

Kyla Keller is a senior at Hillsboro High School.  Kyla is very active, logging in over 100 hours of service through her work with Key Club, National Honor Society, and Girl Scouts.  She coordinated Hilhi’s Thanksgiving basket drive, the annual canned food drive, and a school-wide spring service project.  But she has discovered that her real passion lies in working with the elderly.  So, of the many service projects she’s been involved with, the one she is most proud of, was the Annual Hillsboro High School Senior Citizen Breakfast.

Daniela Lopez is a current sophomore at Century High School, and already has a long list of accomplishments and leadership positions that she’s held.  However, by far her most rewarding experience, occurred last year, when she was a freshman.  She helped in the organization of a concert and fundraising event to benefit a young boy in their community with a very rare, and untreatable disease.  Daniela sought additional help from other students and clubs at Century High School, and was gratified at how many students jumped at the chance to help.  In all, through the concert and donations, they raised over $50,000.  Her advisor states that Daniela is the type of leader “who offers opportunities to others in need, lifting people up to a high potential and sharing in the experience and joy.”

Amber Meier is a senior and ASB President of Jewell School, a small school of less than 200 students in grades K-12.  She has embraced what her small community has to offer, and has given back to it throughout her high school years.  In her sophomore year, she led an effort to provide care-packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan—in all that small community sent over 250 pounds of care-package materials to 5 different units.  Following the earthquake in Haiti, Amber helped lead a fundraising effort to provide clean water and medical equipment for the Haitians.  They exceeded their goal, raising $2086.21, a remarkable amount of money for their small community.

Ryan Montgomery , a sophomore at Pendleton High School, believes that the word “service” has many attributes associated with it: love, passion, leadership, and benevolence.  His greatest passion is to serve and lead others.  His most rewarding service project was sponsoring a charitable walk/run for their local domestic violence shelter.  He first raised money for sponsorships, then proceeded to organize the race, where they raised another $500, and he put in over 200 hours of work, for the shelter.  Ryan currently serves as sophomore class President and Key Club President of his school.

Delaney Paullus is currently in 8th grade at Sunridge Middle School, and is a past Middle Level Representative on the Student Executive Council.  At her school, she’s helped organize several projects, including “Coins for Haiti,” “Shave-It/Save-it,” a Civil War Canned Food Drive, and the Memorial Day Assembly.  But it’s been her work with “Speak Out for Military Kids” that she’s most proud of.  Since Delaney’s own father has been deployed, Delaney knows how other military kids feel.  She recently took part in a Hero Pack Celebration.  They give kids of deployed soldiers a back-pack full of things.  Soon a Pendleton unit will deploy, and she’s involved in a project helping those kids cope.