The Caring Youth Awards celebrate youth who have a positive impact in our community. The award is sponsored by the cities of Golden Valley, Hopkins, and Minnetonka; the Hopkins and Minnetonka school districts; and the Glen Lake Optimists.
Caring Youth Awards recognize students in grades 7 through 12 who live, attend school, or volunteer in Golden Valley, Hopkins, or Minnetonka.
We are pleased to nominate the following students for Caring Youth Awards in 2021:
Genavieve Billiet: senior, Watertown-Mayer High School
Gena has volunteered in numerous programs at ICA She has helped with home deliveries, Bonus Saturday, SuperValu day, Farmer’s market and turkey give-away. Gena enjoys volunteering because it connects her to her community and people she works with, as well as gives her a sense of purpose. She also works closely with her school’s National Honor Society.
Gena loves meeting new people and we’re lucky because she feels connected to ICA. She found out she really enjoys volunteering.
Viviana Gonzalez: junior, Minnetonka High School
Viviana showed real leadership in ICA’s Gather for Good. It was a totally new venture for ICA and she so involved the younger age group in supporting this event. She knew how to navigate the high school system and did such a fantastic job of videotaping and publicizing this event. We are so proud of the creativity and enthusiasm she showed.
From Viviana:
“After COVID I wanted to hep in some way. I reached out to ICA in hopes of being able to help in some way and Mrs. Sinykin gave me the opportunity to help out with the upcoming ICA fundraiser - Gather For Good. I then attended many meetings (about 5 hours worth) where I helped come up with the name for the fundraiser and discussed with the team what the fundraiser should look like. I also gave insight as to what the logo should be and helped create the logo. I then created a video in order to be able to adhere to the MHS crowd. I got other students in the team to film with me as to why students should attend the event. I then got the Student Government president to be in the video to further encourage students to join. I got it posted on the principal's instagram and then worked on helping market it to the high school students. Lastly, I helped judge the videos and pictures that came into the contest to give out the prizes. I worked on this for about 10 hours.”
Jasmine Le: senior, Hopkins High School
Jasmine organized a National Honor Society food drive with 80-90 students at Hopkins High. They worked over 10 hours for 2 weeks arranging, publicizing, picking up and facilitating delivery of food. Jasmine says, My family has relied on ICA when we were in need and to be able to finally give back to a place that has provided for me and my family, meant a lot.
Volunteering for ICA and getting to organize this drive was very impactful for me because during the summer I volunteered at a couple of churches around north Mpls to organize resources to give out to people in those neighborhoods. It really opened my eyes to the workings behind the organization, give my time into something that meant a lot to me especially during the pandemic when I knew people didn’t have the means or resources to provide for their families. I think this NHS event impacted the over 80 students I worked with because of the limited volunteer opportunities during the summer and fact that so many of them donated 20+ items to our drive.
During my volunteer time at ICA I learned how many people they affect all over my community. I also learned that they keep in contact with people they serve and build on this connection, rather than just having it be more of a one-time thing which I thought was really meaningful. I also learned a lot about the supporters and workers that helped me along the way.
Jackson Sinykin: senior, Minnetonka High School
Jackson has been a great on-call volunteer, volunteering at the food shelf and St. Davids. He has helped create decorations and event videos for ICA events. He has dropped off posters and gift bags to volunteers/staff. I think Jackson’s volunteering has raised his awareness of the needs in his community. It’s also made him utilize his free time in a good and resourceful way. He’s also helped other organizations like Loaves & Fishes and delivering Dean Phillips’s signs. When asked about volunteering, Jackson said – I gained a lot from volunteering. I enjoyed getting to know so many different people and clients with different stories and situations. Also allowed me the opportunity to serve different people with different backgrounds and made me more aware of those around me.
Molly Welch: junior, Minnetonka High School.
Molly established a program to help ICA neighbors prepare healthy and delicious meals. She reviewed the most common items available and created simple recipes with those items. (taco skillet/fried rice) Featured recipes or easy distribution. Created a plan to feature one recipe in a “recipe in a bag” program every few months. Recruited a team of volunteers to package donated spies to be included in recipe bags. Molly volunteered numerous hours at home and at the shelf putting these projects together. She will be back to volunteer at ICA.
Molly was not shy about reaching out to grocery stores to get donated bulk spices and recruited a team of volunteers to individually package spices. Molly is easy to work with and had great communication and initiative throughout her volunteer time.
“A Caring Youth takes the initiative to identify a need in the community then volunteers in a way that helps meet that need.”