Izzy Munsch, a sophomore at the Fairmont Jr./Sr. High School, recently received the President’s Volunteer Service Award. The award, given by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and sponsored by Prudential Financial, was given to Munsch based on the large number of hours she has spent volunteering.

Munsch received a notification letter on White House stationary, with a letter from the president, thanking her for the time she’s spent volunteering. An excerpt reads, “One of our Nation’s greatest strengths remains the compassion of our everyday citizens, who give so willingly of themselves and their lives for the benefit of others.”

Principal Kim Niss found out about the award through the National Association of Secondary School Principals, (NASSP) who are in partnership with the Prudential Spirit of Community Award. Niss said she assumes any principal who is part of the NASSP can nominate a student, though not every schools does. This was the first year that she’s ever nominated a student and that is partially due to the fact that the school now has a volunteer letter.

“Otherwise I wouldn’t have known who to nominate. By bringing that volunteer letter in, it makes us more aware of what kids are doing outside of school to give back so that made it possible to do the nomination,” Niss said.

Last school year was the first year the Fairmont Jr./Sr. High School had implemented a new volunteer letter in which students could receive after completing 100 hours of unpaid volunteer work. Niss had sent out information about this award to all seven of the students who received a volunteer letter at the end of last school year.

“I had received paperwork from the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards about nominating students to apply for the award. I sent it out to the students who earned a volunteer letter last year. Four of those students applied for the award, and then we as a school had to certify one of the students to go to the next level and that’s where we chose Izzy to represent Fairmont High School,” Niss explained.

Munsch said that she had to fill out an application and talk about the type of volunteer work she does, why she chooses to volunteer and the feelings she associates with it.

While Munsch has done a lot of volunteer work, a big project she talked about were the audio books she made for her Girl Scout Silver Award project.

“A friend and I took a book and then recorded ourselves reading the book and then put the recording on a CD and packaged the book and CD together and gave them to kids who are too young to read so that they can gradually learn how to read,” Munsch explained.

Munsch said that they made more than 60 audio books and that they had set out several days to record and she got a lot of hours doing that.

“I had to spend 50 hours or more on the Girl Scout Silver Award project, so half of my hours came from making the audio books. I also go to Heaven’s Table food shelf with my girl scout troop and then I volunteer at my church, Grace Lutheran,” Munsch said.

Besides being involved with girl scouts and volunteering in her free time, Munsch is also in choir, orchestra, speech, as well as the school’s fall musicals and spring plays.Since this was the first time the school had ever nominated a student for the award, neither Niss nor Munsch really knew what to expect.

“I applied for it and I thought, ‘if it happens, it happens,’ but I didn’t really think about it until I was called down into the office and given the award. I was not expecting it,” Munsch admitted.

Chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, John Strangfeld, said, “by recognizing these students and placing a spotlight on their volunteer activities, we hope to motivate others to consider how they can also contribute to their community.”