Contest: Prudential Spirit of Community Award

To help raise awareness of the Prudential Spirit of Community Award, I had the opportunity to interview one of last year's winners, Cassandra Lin, who figured out a way to collect used oil from restaurants and distribute it to those who needed help keeping their homes warm.

What inspired you to choose your particular area of service?

I was inspired to choose my area of community service after I read an article in the local paper about a charity in my town that started an initiative called the “One Dollar A Week” campaign, in which residents donated a dollar each week to go towards emergency heating assistance. I was shocked when I learned people in my town couldn’t afford to heat their homes, and I wanted to help them. At the same time, I wanted to help the environment and stop global warming, and my project was formed to simultaneously combat those two issues. Project TGIF is a sustainable system to collect waste cooking oil, convert it into environmentally-friendly biodiesel, and then distribute the fuel to families in need.

What was the biggest obstacle you faced?

One of the main problems was when, at the beginning of the project, a lot of restaurants didn’t want to sign up with our program because they thought, “Oh, you’re just kids. Why should I trust you?” But after a while we started to gain more credibility, and those restaurants started to trust us more. We could point to our list and say, “Hey look, we have 30 restaurants participating, would you like to be another?” We could show them all of the benefits of our program. For example, we might put an ad in the newspaper thanking them, or give them a table stand that says, “You’re eating at a green facility,” things like that. So, over the past few years, the number of restaurants has just kept growing. Now, we have over 100 restaurants in our program.

What surprised you the most about your experience?

We’ve had a LOT of generous people during this project, and that surprised me in a good way. I felt like we were actually making an impact in the community because people would be so generous. There were some restaurants that would switch into our program and be like, “I think this is a great idea; keep doing what you’re doing.” So that has been a boost for us, and it has been kind of surprising!

Who is your role model when it comes to volunteering and serving others?

I don’t have a particular role model, but I do tend to look up to anyone who shows passion and enthusiasm for what they’re doing, people who are completely dedicated to their volunteer work and serving others.

What advice do you have for students who want to serve, but don't know how to get started?

If you want to get involved in your own community, I think you should start with extremely small steps, maybe even just baby steps. You can volunteer at an animal shelter or somewhere with a food pantry. Just take small steps that you can accomplish and move up from there. Then maybe you can start your own club, where you have a group of volunteers and you can go out and do fundraisers for a charity or a cause. They don’t have to be huge things, but you should definitely have your goals straight and have them within your reach. So you should set objectives that you can accomplish and feel proud of what you do. Another suggestion is checking out some websites such as www.dosomething.org or www.ashoka.org/youthventure, both of the websites have many resources and can provide ideas, steps, and training to help newcomers start their own projects.

What advice do you have for parents and teachers who want to support students in their efforts?

Support students in their efforts, but if you’re willing to go a little further, push the boundaries for the students. Encourage them to step outside of their comfort zones. My parents have always done that for me, and I can’t tell you how much I have improved because of that, especially in public speaking. Also, I would say show the students that they can be problem-solvers. If this is shown at an early age, it will definitely have an impact on how students think and work when they encounter obstacles. Another suggestion I have for parents and teachers is to encourage students to enter some competitions related to their project. The competitions can help them to focus and set up short term as well as long-term goals, and define a timeline to accomplish the goals. Competitions such as Community Problem Solving (under www.fpspi.org) helped us to improve our projects.

To get involved with The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards this school year, visit: http://spirit.prudental.com . The deadline for this year has passed, but now is a great time to start thinking of projects for those interested in entering next year!