Benton high school senior top youth volunteer

Malea Schulte, 18, of Norway was named one of Iowa's top two youth volunteers for 2010 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. 

Brandon Pettit, 11, of Prole is the other winner.

The program, now in its 15th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals. 

Schulte was nominated by Benton Community High School in Van Horne. As a state honorees, she will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where she will join the top two honorees from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events.

Ten students will be named America's top youth volunteers for 2010 at that time. 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.

Schulte, a senior at Benton Community High School, painted a large mural to decorate a new baseball museum in her community, designed a logo for the museum, helped landscape the area around it, and worked on beautifying the interior. After viewing “The Final Season,” a movie about Norway's winning baseball teams, Schulte began to fully appreciate her town's rich tradition of championship baseball, and quickly signed on to assist a budding effort to build a museum.

“In Norway, Iowa, baseball is like our all-encompassing religion,” she said.

After a former bank building was donated to house the museum, Schulte began painting a 6-by-12-foot mural for the exterior, depicting a Norway baseball player jumping for a fly ball. When it was finished, Schulte worked on the landscaping around the building, helping to remove cement slabs, install a drainage system, and lay down river rock. She also helped other volunteers assemble displays and beautify the museum's interior. Framed photos of her mural will be sold in the museum gift shop to finance the purchase of baseball gloves for disadvantaged children in the area.

“I think every young person deserves this opportunity, especially children growing up in the baseball capital of Iowa,” Schulte said. “The baseball museum has changed the attitude of the entire town. It rekindled the pride that was always there, just hidden.”

Program judges recognized four other Iowa students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities, including one from Eastern Iowa.

Aaron Swailes, 18, of Columbus Junction, a senior at Highland High School in Riverside, is serving as state president of a youth-led program promoting tobacco prevention and control. Swailes travels throughout Iowa promoting the program, participating in activities, and teaching about the negative effects of tobacco use. He also serves as a non-voting member of the State Commission for the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Each Distinguished Finalists receives an engraved bronze medallion.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represent the United States' largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service.  Since the program began in 1995, more than 90,000 young volunteers nationwide have been honored at the local, state or national 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 affiliates of HandsOn Network, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award this past November.  Nearly 5,000 Local Honorees were then reviewed by an independent judging panel, which selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth.