We are delighted to announce that Elizabeth Marsh '18 received recognition for her exemplary volunteer service with a President's Volunteer Service Award. The award, which recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country, was granted by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program on behalf of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.Elizabeth has volunteered over the past several years for three non-profit organizations focused on helping children. Every summer since 2014, she has volunteered at Leaps and Bounds, an occupational therapy camp in Washington, DC. At Leaps and Bounds, she helped children improve their fine and gross motor skills by setting up activities and assisting the children with arts and crafts, sports, and handwriting activities. Her goal was to try to make difficult tasks fun.
In addition to her work at Leaps and Bounds, Elizabeth has also been a lead at SOS4Cancer, a student organized non-profit organization that helps children with cancer. SOS4Cancer not only organizes activities for the children with cancer, they also raise funds to send children in remission to camp with other survivors, as well as to purchase iPads so that they can continue with their school work when they are undergoing cancer treatments.
Elizabeth's third community service effort took her overseas where she volunteered as a teacher assistant at Pokesdown Primary School in Dorset, England with children with developmental, educational, or emotional delays. Several of these children had parents who were in jail or had drug addictions. Elizabeth helped these children with reading, math, and writing lessons.
"I was motivated to volunteer for organizations that help disadvantaged children because I love working with young children and feel deeply saddened when they have to struggle with real challenges that are not of their own choosing. No matter what your background is, childhood should be a time of joy and discovery, not of pain. If I can make any child's life a bit easier, then I should do my best to try to give back, particularly as I have been fortunate to have such a wonderful education," expressed Elizabeth.
Congratulations and thanks to Elizabeth for her impressive and inspiring service on behalf of those in need.