Minnesota's Robert Rasmussen of Hutchinson Named One of America's Top Ten Youth Volunteers.

State's Bridget Alldritt of Chisago City Also Honored During Four-Day Celebration, With Tribute From Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning

WASHINGTON -- Robert Rasmussen, 14, of Hutchinson was named one of America's top ten youth volunteers for 2007 in a ceremony today at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, receiving a national Prudential Spirit of Community Award for his outstanding volunteer community service. Selected from a field of more than 20,000 applicants across the country, he received a personal award of $5,000, an engraved gold medallion, a crystal trophy for his school, and a $5,000 grant from The Prudential Foundation for a nonprofit charitable organization of his choice.

Also honored in Washington was Bridget Alldritt, 17, of Chisago City. She and Robert were named Minnesota's top youth volunteers in February, and were recognized last night at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, along with the top two youth volunteers of every other state and the District of Columbia. At that event, all 102 Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees for 2007 were presented with $1,000 awards, and were congratulated by Indianapolis Colts quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning. The honorees also received engraved silver medallions and an all-expense-paid trip with their parents to Washington, D.C., for this week's recognition events.

Conducted in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards were created 12 years ago by Prudential Financial, Inc. to encourage youth volunteerism and to identify and reward young role models. Since then, the program has honored more than 75,000 young volunteers at the local, state and national level.

"Robert and Bridget have demonstrated a level of compassion, dedication and achievement that is truly exceptional," said Arthur F. Ryan, Chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, Inc. "We are proud to give them the recognition they so richly deserve, and hope that their example will inspire other young people to become actively involved in their own communities."

Robert, a seventh-grader at Hutchinson Middle School, made more than 600 cement markers to place at the graves of all U.S. veterans in a local cemetery, providing a permanent memorial to their sacrifice. Robert came up with the idea while attending his town's Memorial Day service last spring. "I learned that they recognized veterans by putting a flag on their graves during Memorial Day weekend," he said. "The following day the flags came down and the recognition was over, and I wondered why we don't have a better way of honoring and remembering veterans the rest of the year."

Robert contacted numerous organizations and businesses for support - and he got plenty of it. The American Legion donated copper stars, a local cement company provided cement, and a hardware store supplied wood and screws to make molds. With the help of a family member, Robert made the 30-pound markers, transported them to the cemetery, dug holes for them, and laid them in the ground at the gravesites of all veterans in the cemetery, some of whom served in the Civil War. "I feel it's important to remember the legacy of our veterans," he said. "The freedom they fought for is the freedom we enjoy today."

Bridget, a senior at Chisago Lakes High School in Lindstrom, is the co-founder of an annual summer camp for children stricken with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, and is an active ambassador for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). Bridget has suffered from chronic ulcerative colitis since she was 9 years old, and has endured more than 30 hospitalizations, six surgeries, countless medications, dietary restrictions, and a lot of missed school time. "After attending Bible Camp one summer and having to leave after one night because of lack of medical support and knowledge of my disease by the staff, I was very upset and thought I would never be able to attend camp and have fun like healthy kids," she said.

As a result, six years ago Bridget and her mother developed a six-day, all-volunteer summer camp that gives young colitis and Crohn's patients in the upper Midwest the chance to have medically supervised fun at a relatively low cost. The camp, said Bridget, is "the one thing that this stupid disease has done that is positive!" With support from CCFA, Bridget and her mother also created their area's first support group for afflicted kids and their parents. In addition, Bridget manages an annual "bowl-a-thon" that has raised nearly $50,000 for CCFA, and speaks at pediatric conferences and charity events on behalf of the foundation. "I am dedicated to easing the pain and suffering of as many children living with these diseases as possible," she said.

Applications for the 2007 awards program were submitted last fall through schools, Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and Volunteer Centers affiliated with the Points of Light Foundation. The top middle level and high school applicants in each state and the District of Columbia were announced in February. These 102 State Honorees are in Washington this week with their parents for four days of special recognition events.

Ten of the 102 were named America's top ten youth volunteers for 2007 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters today. These National Honorees received additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies for the schools or organizations that nominated them, and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for charities of their choice.

In addition to Robert, the National Honorees are:

Taylor Bell, 18, of Little Rock, Ark., a junior at Pulaski Academy, who created Little Rock's first organized soccer league for special-needs children, engaging more than 100 kids who otherwise would have very limited opportunities to play team sports.

Kendall Ciesemier, 14, of Wheaton, Ill., an eighth-grader at Franklin Middle School, who formed a nonprofit organization that has raised $80,000 since 2004 through Web site donations and T-shirt sales to benefit AIDS orphans in Africa.

Kelly Davis, 18, of West Bath, Maine, a senior at Morse High School in Bath, who spearheaded the enactment of a state law allowing third-party nonprofit organizations to raise money for the police, and then raised more than $40,000 to purchase a bulletproof vest for every working police dog in Maine.

Anna DeSanctis, 13, of Houston, Texas, an eighth-grader at Holy Spirit Episcopal School, who raised more than $22,000 to create libraries at four orphanages in the region of China where she was born.

Bryce Pfeiffer, 14, of Raton, N.M., a member of the Colfax County 4-H and a home-schooled seventh-grader, who led a project to purchase and install a handicapped-accessible fishing dock on a lake at a local state park.

Mollie Singer, 18, of Las Vegas, Nev., a senior at Nevada State High School in Henderson, who has helped raise public support and more than $100,000 for diabetes research since she was diagnosed with the disease at age 4.

Jourdan Urbach, 15, of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., a home-schooled sophomore and a student at the Juilliard School's Pre-College Division in New York City, who has used his reputation and acclaimed abilities as a violinist to raise more than $1.3 million for national charities focused on neurological illnesses.

Kelydra Welcker, 18, of Parkersburg, W.Va., a senior at Parkersburg South High School, who invented a way to purify drinking water in her community by developing a test for the presence of a controversial industrial compound, and then creating a method for removing the chemical from water.

Heather Wilder, 13, of Las Vegas, Nev., a seventh-grader at Ernest Becker Middle School, who has written a series of 10 booklets to help foster children understand and cope with their situations, based on her own experiences as a foster child.

The National Honorees were chosen by a national selection committee that was co-chaired by U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Arthur Ryan of Prudential. Also serving on the committee were actor Richard Dreyfuss; Alma Powell, Chair of America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth; Robert Goodwin, former President and CEO of the Points of Light Foundation; Amy B. Cohen, Director of Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National and Community Service; Kathy Cloninger, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA; Donald T. Floyd Jr., President and CEO of National 4-H Council; Michael Cohen, President and CEO of Achieve, Inc.; Kathryn Forbes, National Chair of Volunteers, American Red Cross; Joe Militello, President of NASSP; and two 2006 Prudential Spirit of Community National Honorees: Geneva Johnson of the Bronx, N.Y., a student at Binghamton University, and Ajay Mangal of Pascagoula, Miss., a student at Columbia University.

NASSP President Joe Militello said: "Every year, the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program brings out some of the best and brightest youth in the country. This year is no exception as we take another welcomed opportunity to honor these young people for displaying great character and leadership as they try to effect positive changes in their communities, this nation and the world."

In addition to the organizations above, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards are supported by the American Association of School Administrators, the National Middle School Association, the National School Boards Association, the Council of the Great City Schools, the National School Public Relations Association and many other national youth and service organizations.

More information about The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and this year's honorees can be found at www.prudential.com/spirit or www.principals.org/prudential.

The National Association of Secondary School Principals - the preeminent organization and the national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals and aspiring school leaders - provides its members with the professional resources to serve as visionary leaders. NASSP promotes the intellectual growth, academic achievement, character development, leadership development, and physical well-being of youth through its programs and student leadership services. NASSP sponsors the National Honor Society[TM], the National Junior Honor Society[TM] and the National Association of Student Councils[TM]. For more information on NASSP, NHS, NJHS or NASC, visit www.principals.org.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with approximately $616 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2006, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Leveraging its heritage of life insurance and asset management expertise, Prudential is focused on helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth. The company's well-known Rock symbol is an icon of strength, stability, expertise and innovation that has stood the test of time. Prudential's businesses offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds, asset management, and real estate services. For more information, please visit www.prudential.com.

(Editors: full-color pictures of the Spirit of Community Awards program logo and medallions are available at www.prudential.com/spirit.)