Texas' Top Two Youth Volunteers Selected in 12th Annual National Awards Program.

Plano and Houston students earn $1,000 awards, engraved medallions and trip to nation's capital

Honors also bestowed on other top youth volunteers in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas -- Kyle Freas, 18, of Plano and Anna DeSanctis, 13, of Houston today were named Texas' top two youth volunteers for 2007 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 12th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

Kyle was nominated by Plano West Senior High School in Plano, and Anna was nominated by Holy Spirit Episcopal School in Houston. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees - one middle level and one high school youth - from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America's top youth volunteers for 2007 at that time.

Kyle, a senior at Plano West Senior High School, founded a nonprofit organization called "Youth Together" that encourages students at elementary and middle schools to participate in a variety of projects to help homeless, abused and critically ill children. Since launching Youth Together six years ago, he has developed eight community service projects and offered students in more than 100 schools the opportunity to take part in them. In addition to teaching students about community service, Kyle's program has provided backpacks and school supplies to abused children, movies and games for pediatric patients, and holiday costumes and gifts to homeless kids. He also has projects that support homeless and zoo animals. To accomplish all of this, Kyle has recruited hundreds of high school volunteers over the years, and raised more than $70,000 to support the projects. "There is no better feeling than sharing with others," said Kyle. "We need to realize that we are helping ourselves and our communities when we help others."

Anna, an eighth-grader at Holy Spirit Episcopal School, raised more than $22,000 to create libraries at four orphanages in the Chinese province where she was born. Anna called her effort the "Odyssey Project" because she saw it as a journey that connected her to her past. She was adopted as a baby, and later learned that most orphanages in China had no libraries for children. "I felt bad that the orphans in China didn't have books to tell them about the world," she said.

Anna set out to raise $2,000 for a library at one orphanage. First, she asked for cash donations instead of birthday presents from friends and family. She then hosted a school dance, asked her grandparents to encourage friends to make donations, and contributed her allowance for a year. In 18 months, Anna raised more than $22,000, which she sent to two Chinese social welfare organizations to build and stock libraries at four orphanages. There was even enough left over to construct water wells in two remote villages. Anna traveled to China last year to dedicate two of the new libraries. "I realized that if I was still in China, I might not have gone to school nor had a family," she said. "People these days don't realize how fortunate they are, but now I do."

In addition, the program judges recognized 10 other Texas students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion:

Grant Allen, 18, of Grand Saline, a senior at Grand Saline High School, initiated a project to soundproof three band hall practice rooms at his school by applying acoustical foam to their walls. He collected monetary donations and supplies for the project, and recruited volunteers from his church, Boy Scout troop, band and community to complete the project over three weekends.

Emily Benigno, 17, of Kingwood, a senior at St. Agnes Academy in Houston, spearheaded a food drive at Kingwood Medical Center as president of its junior auxiliary. Emily's drive produced more than 25 boxes of food to help restock a local food pantry that had been depleted due to Hurricane Katrina evacuees who had relocated to Houston.

Catherine Flores, 17, of San Antonio, a senior at Saint Mary's Hall, created a dance program for young girls living at St. Peter-St. Joseph Children's Home as wards of the state. Catherine teaches the class twice every month to give the girls the opportunity to find pride and confidence in themselves while also having fun.

Tania Foster, 18, of Sachse, a senior at Sachse High School, collected more than $10,000 to support U.S. troops stationed in South Korea through her nonprofit organization, "Dallas is Love." Tania raised the money by soliciting individual and corporate donations, and then purchased Army and Air Force Exchange gift certificates, which the troops can use on any military base in the world.

Alexander Levy, 17, of Houston, a senior at Mirabeau B. Lamar High School, organized a book drive and created a book cart and library system for patients at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. Alexander recruited friends to support his project, and then collected and sorted more then 3,500 books and other reading materials for the hospital. He also raised nearly $600 to fund his project.

Deanna Mei, 17, of Plano, a senior at Plano Senior High School, provides care packages filled with games, toys and other items to distract young hospital patients from their pain. Since Deanna's "LUV Notes" project began last summer, she has collected enough donations to put together 50 care packages for pediatric patients at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, each with a note of encouragement or a special poem.

Diana Pham, 18, of Arlington, a senior at Summit High School, co-founded a tutoring program called "Mentors Uniting Students for Enlightenment" in 2005 to provide free tutoring to children in the first through sixth grades. Currently, Diana has 20 mentors matched with 20 young students for weekly sessions focusing on math, reading and science.

Daniel Steck, 17, of San Antonio, a senior at Ronald Reagan High School, organized a fund-raising campaign that yielded $1,000 for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and then volunteered to work at a shelter for families displaced by the storm. A short while later, Daniel founded a Red Cross club at his school that has participated in numerous community service activities.

Stephanie Strauss, 17, of Midland, a senior at Robert E. Lee High School, is a nationally recognized storyteller and has used her experience to create "Living Memories," a program to encourage children coping with the loss of a loved one to find comfort in telling their personal stories. Stephanie, who worked closely with Hospice Midland to create this program, conducted hour-long workshops over a six-week period for 40 participants.

Natasha Verma, 12, of Victoria, a seventh-grader at Nazareth Academy, conducts presentations on how children can prevent diabetes and obesity, and also writes an Internet blog called "Health is Wealth." In addition, Natasha wrote and co-produced a DVD on diabetes that she sold nationally to raise more than $1,500 for the American Diabetes Association.

"People as caring and committed as these young students are critical to the future of our neighborhoods, our cities and our nation," said Arthur Ryan, chairman and CEO of Prudential. "By recognizing these honorees, we hope to encourage other young people - our future leaders - and all Americans to think more about the value and importance of volunteering in their communities."

"NASSP is pleased to once again join Prudential in recognizing these young people for their amazing accomplishments," remarked Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. "This year's honorees are proof that the youth of today are conscientious and capable of performing selfless acts of kindness in their local communities, on a national scale and at the global level."

All public and private middle level and high schools in the country, as well as all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and Volunteer Centers, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award this past November. More than 7,500 Local Honorees were then reviewed by state-level judges, who selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth.

While in Washington, D.C., the 102 State Honorees will tour the capital's landmarks, attend a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill. In addition, 10 of them - five middle level and five high school students - will be named National Honorees on May 7 by a prestigious national selection committee. These honorees will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies, and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit, charitable organizations of their choice.

Serving on the national selection committee will be U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota; Arthur Ryan of Prudential; actor Richard Dreyfuss; Alma Powell, chair of America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth; Robert Goodwin, 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: Ajay Mangal of Pascagoula, Miss., and Geneva Johnson of the Bronx, N.Y.

In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program will be distributing President's Volunteer Service Awards to more than 4,150 of its Local Honorees this year on behalf of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President's Volunteer Service Award recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represent the United States' largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service. The program is part of a broad youth-service initiative by Prudential that includes a youth leadership training program administered by the Points of Light Foundation; a free booklet of volunteer ideas for young people offered through the Federal Citizen Information Center; and a Web site featuring profiles of outstanding youth volunteers, volunteer tips and project ideas for students, an electronic newspaper on youth volunteerism, and more (www.prudential.com/spirit). The Spirit of Community Awards program also is conducted by Prudential subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and is being introduced this year in Ireland.

For information on all of this year's Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit 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 companies serve individual and institutional customers worldwide and include The Prudential Insurance Company of America, one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. These companies offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, mutual funds, annuities, pension and retirement-related services and administration, asset management, securities brokerage, banking and trust services, real estate brokerage franchises and relocation services. For more information, visit www.prudential.com.