Northfield students cleaned up at the National Learn and Serve America ceremony at the Minneapolis Convention Center last night. I’m not talking about litter either, local kids picked up a majority of the awards.
At the national conference on Service Learning, the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation handed out The President’s (that’s George W. Bush) Volunteer Service Award to students from around the region. Northfielders brought home eight of them.
Northfield High School Teacher Sarah Swan McDonald nominated the students for this honor. Recipients from Northfield were Stephanie Calderon, Mauricio Lezaro Hernandez, Tom Pokorney, Claire Carlson, Siri Thompson, Phoebe Currier, and twins Rachel and Naomi Miessler.
The students all contributed hundreds of hours of volunteer time to the community through a variety of organizations and projects. How old do you have to be to run for City Council?
Ah, these kids are going on to bigger and better things…
Wow! Phoebe is our first grandchild to receive acclimation from the President of the United States!
We KNOW she was very deserving …
(Too bad it wasn’t warm enough to wear one of those cute sundresses she bought recently in Naples).
Totally Unbiased, Grandma Marilyn Currier
I wish I’d known more about this prior to the awards ceremony. You can learn more about the initiative here and here.
Congratulations to Phoebe and the other NHS students who were recognized for their service to our community -- it’s good that their work is acknowledged at more than just a local level.
Ross, Tracy, Griff, I like it when you showcase positive news like this.
There’s another story that I haven’t seen publicized--or if it was I missed it. I heard that one Northfield High School student placed high recently in the State High School Chess meet. He’s Ben Ludescher, son of David, frequent LoGro No contributor. Over the years, David has donated hundreds of hours coaching and driving the chess team to meets etc. Kudos to Ben and a tip of the cap to David.
Curt, is there a link to anyplace on the web that has info about the State meet, or the NHS club?
Tracy, here’s the only place I could find it. Hopefully you can put this enormous address into a more workable link:
Here’s a not too useful link to the team page. I think physics teacher Ms. Messer is the coach, with assistance from David:
http://www2.nfld.k12.mn.us/education/sportszone/sportszone.php?sectiondetailid=2150
David, maybe you could help us out here. I think I got the info wrong. The team finished 10th, led by Ben. (I first thought Ben finished 10th as an individual.) Sorry about the confusion.
Curt: Thanks for the plug for the Chess team. I don’t have a link. I have had the good fortune to work with Russ Marguiles, Mark Robinson, and Rebecca Messer as the head coaches over the last 16 years. We have gone to the Nationals 3 times (our best finish 13th), and the state tournament every year (they are open tournaments).
We’ve had one state (co)champion (Mark Anderson -- who is a wonderful story in himself). That year, the team was first going into the final round; we finished third. This year, we finished 10th, with my son, Ben, finishing the best of our players.
I do receive some monetary compensation. The real compensation is seeing the kids achieve, such an one Vietnamese immigrant, who was motivated to stay in school by chess, and eventually graduated with a degree in chemistry from St. Olaf.
P.S. Curt -- I loved having your son.
Congratulations to all these wonderful kids; I know some of them and are so proud of them. I wish I knew them all: I am certainly proud of them all.
Maybe the strife the community has been going through has a positive aspect in that it makes some adults engage more, and has the same effect on the youth who see the need for an involved citizenry.