By Chris Hagan
Review Staff Writer
The Orion Area Youth Assistance celebrated 23 years of honoring students at their annual Youth Recognition Award ceremony.
Nearly 50 students were accompanied by family, friends and educators as they were awarded and recognized April 28 for their efforts in making the community a better place. The evening celebrated students involved in projects from mission trips, bully prevention, mentoring and community outreach.
Lake Orion Superintendent Marion Ginopolis, Township Supervisor Chris Barnett, and Youth Assistance Supervisor for Oakland County, Patrick Breen, gave introductions and opening remarks. They were followed by the Scripps 7, a middle school acapella group directed by Todd Gordon.
“It’s always nice to highlight to some of the positive things that our kids are doing in the community,” interim case worker for OAYA Amber Kish said. “There’s always such a focus on the negative and so often kids hear what they’re doing wrong that it’s really a great opportunity to focus on the positive and show all the great things that the students are doing our community that no one would really knows about.”
Of the 47 students recognized there were several student projects that stood out.
Sophomore Madeline Braley has been involved with the Orion Township’s Youth Council since its inception. She’s passionate about the environment and is the first-ever youth member of Orion Township’s Environmental Resource Committee.
Braley has worked to create a campaign launching this spring called “Greener Orion.” The campaign will address the need to be more conscious of our environment and include a community clean-up day on Saturday, May 14.
Another stand out from the evening was Valerie Malmstead. She was recently adopted by her foster parents and last year for her birthday she donated all of her gifts, gift cards, and clothes to a charity called the Foster Closet.
The Foster Closet is a non-profit organization that gives items to children in foster care through 17 branches in Michigan. Along with her sister, Katie Malmstead, their donation was over $300 plus boxes of new toys.
“Our organization is pretty much built on volunteerism. We have a volunteer board of directors that oversees our programming, so we recognize how important it is to give back to the community,” Kish said. “There’s so many hidden gems here and we really want to encourage that spirit and continue that into adulthood.”