Schools
Young Students Receive Service Medals as District Celebrates Martin Luther King Day
Elementary and middle school students were recognized for unselfish acts of love and service.
Trophies go to athletes and crowns to beauty queens.
But in Gloucester Township, 11 public school students received medals for demonstrating their service to humanity in the spirit of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
The medals were awarded Monday during the school district’s fifth annual Celebration of Service, an event commemorating the legacy of King, whose birthday was Jan. 15.
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About 300 attended the two-hour program, held at the Charles W. Lewis Middle School, at an event highlighted by words of commendation as well as inspirational music by vocalist Courtney Davis and the Harmony Show Choir.
The Highland High School Jazz Combo and The Men of Distinction, a boys’ club, also performed.
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The award winners, selected by their teachers, represented each of Gloucester Township’s 11 elementary and middle schools.
Medals fastened to red, white and blue ribbons were draped around each student’s neck as they were recognized individually.
The young award winners were commended for an astonishing array of human service activities. Some were cited for charitable fund-raising, while others worked at food pantries, helped the homeless, collected and packed gifts sent to troops, or performed numerous simple acts of kindness such as shoveling snow for infirm neighbors.
In addition to the students, Joseph Bretschneider and Edward Fiscella Jr., the founders of Mainstage, were awarded for their contribution to local performing arts, and presented with the 2011 Community Award.
Superintendent of Schools Thomas D. Seddon paid an emotional tribute to the late Robin R. Stewart, a local teacher and counselor for at-risk students for eight years before succumbing to cancer on Dec. 17.
Seddon spoke of Stewart’s devotion to her students throughout her illness, calling her a model of courage, strength and faith. The late educator was posthumously awarded the Superintendent’s Award of Excellence, which was received by her father and brother.
The program ended with the school community presenting gifts to the Hider Lane Drop-In Center and Senior Campus One, a residential facility at Lakeland—both senior citizen groups. The donations include a 40-inch television, 1,000 books, 200 movie tapes and CDs, and 60 board games and puzzles.
The student medal winners are:
Pierson Au-Yang, Erial Elementary School
Allysia Edwards, Loring-Flemming Elementary School
Alexis Gentile, Chews Elementary School
Ryan Hill, Glendora Elementary School
Danielle Jewell, Union Valley Elementary School
Chanel Jordan, Glen Landing Middle School
Claire Lickfeld, James W. Lilley Elementary School
Daquan Lindsey, Charles W. Lewis Middle School
Terrin Poe-Johnson, Ann Mullen Middle School
Destinee Reaves, Gloucester Township Elementary School
Symone Sexton, Blackwood Elementary School
