Courtney Weis, 17, of Gardiner, NY has been honored for her exemplary volunteer service with a state-level Certificate of Excellence from the 2009 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. Weis was nominated for her award by Cornell Cooperative Extension Ulster County’s 4-H Youth Development Program. Courtney has been an active member of 4-H for twelve years.
She is currently the president of the ABC 4-H Club where she plans curriculum, and teaches club members to become more involved in community service through club projects which have included, adopting a platoon for active service men and women in Iraq and sending care packages to children in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a teen representative for the Ulster County Strategy Committee, Weis is gaining assertiveness and learning real world skills by working with a diverse group of members. As part of her public presentation for 2005, she presented Organ Donor Awareness on a county, district and state level to raise concerns about current laws that effect distribution of organs to patients who need them most. She is President of 4-H Teen Council and is responsible for leading their meetings, encouraging and suggesting new community projects, helping to manage the 4-H Milk Shake Booth at the Ulster County Fair, and several holiday charity events to benefit needy families in Ulster County. Courtney has also been the recipient of several awards and has most recently received a President’s Volunteer Service Award from the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, which recognizes Americans who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, now in its 14th year, also recognizes the top middle level and high school volunteer in each state and the District of Columbia, and will name America’s top ten youth in May 2009. More than 250,000 young people across America have been considered for these awards since the program began in 1995.
