Published: May 07, 2008 09:12 pm            

Wabash Valley brother, sister honored for creating Youth Embracing Service

Lt. Gov. Skillman presents awards at Honey Creek Middle School

TERRE HAUTE — Although they didn’t start Youth Embracing Service for the recognition, Grant and Amanda Mansard are getting a lot of it.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman awarded each of them with a Hoosier Rising Star Award at an assembly Wednesday in Honey Creek Middle School. This award follows the WTHI Make a Difference Award the pair received not too long ago.

“Grant and Amanda Mansard, they are an amazing duo,” Skillman said. “They use good ideas, they use a little hard work and they’re making a very meaningful impact in this community.”

Youth Embracing Service, or YES, is a not-for-profit youth volunteer organization started almost a year ago by Grant and Amanda Mansard, 15 and 13 respectively, when they found there were little to no volunteer opportunities online. Thus, they created an online database with volunteer information available to youth around the community.

“Amanda and I started YES to make a difference in our community,” Grant said after receiving his award. “… It’s a great way to meet new people and you may develop lifelong friends, and I challenge all of you to make a difference in your community.”

Service projects the group has done include sending more than 3,000 Christmas cards made by Vigo County elementary school students to soldiers overseas, singing Christmas carols and delivering Valentines to home-care patients and delivering home-made Easter baskets to Intrepid Home Health Care patients.

Skillman created the Hoosier Rising Star Award last year to acknowledge youths’ contributions to their communities. It is presented to up to five recipients.

“Events like this and shining the spotlight on young people for doing amazing things shows to us Hoosiers of all ages that the future looks very bright in the state of Indiana,” Skillman said.

Recipients were nominated by a community member. Skillman said she received about 20 applications this year.

Only three people were chosen this year. Katie Logan of Columbus, a senior in high school, was selected this year for her efforts to bring in experts from across the nation to conduct community teach-ins to teach the community about current and international events.

YES now has 15 student leaders to help plan and oversee events with more than 100 volunteers to participate in various events. The Mansards hope to expand YES across the nation eventually, they said.

Future projects for the group include creating a Nintendo Wii bowling league at local retirement homes and delivering the books they bought and collected from their literacy project to the Headstart program.

Volunteers are going to dress up as characters from the books and make some arts and crafts with the children when they deliver the books. Each child is expected to receive 10 books, Amanda Mansard said.

With awards in hand, the Mansards still couldn’t believe the recognition.

“I thought my mom and dad were just messing with me,” Grant Mansard said about hearing the news. “Because I didn’t think that I would be, my sister and I would be two out of the five that are possibly selected, which there only were three selected so it makes it even more amazing, and I was just lost for words.”

Amanda agreed.

“Two out of the three people who were selected, it’s just a great feeling,” she said. “It still hasn’t sunk in for me.”

For more information about YES, visit www.youthembracingservice.org.

Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.

        

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