From Kids2Kids Special Needs Mentoring Program:
A very special awards ceremony celebrated the tireless work of 47 teen mentors with the Kids2Kids Special Needs Mentoring Program on Dec. 15, 2017, at Morristown Beard School. Teens from 22 local schools have met the qualifications necessary to receive this prestigious honor categorized into:
- Gold Award — 100+ hours for 15/under, 250+ hours for 16/older
- Silver Award — 75-99 hours for 15/under, 175-249 hours for 16/older
- Bronze Award — 50-74 hours for 15/under, 100-174 hours for 16/older
The Presidential Volunteer Service Award winners receive a letter of congratulations signed by President Trump, a certificate of national recognition and the according medal for their service level.
Principal of Morristown High School and the parent of a K2K mentor, Mr. Mark Manning reminded the group that gathered for the ceremony, “Unfortunately we live in a society where differences are a point of departure — a reason to separate. This program teaches our young adults that differences can be a rallying point – a reason to come together and to learn how to support each other.”
Junior Julianna Scerbo from Mountain Lakes High School and Founding Board Member of K2K summarizes her experience by saying, “Serving the Morris County special needs community in the K2K swim program has been incredibly rewarding. I love that I can make a child smile, feel accomplished, and have fun all while teaching them life saving skills they didn’t even know they were learning.”
Sophia Sparacino from Morristown High School explains, “I love working with Kids to Kids because the impact is immediate, as soon as I see a smile on the swimmer face it is worth it.”
Her sister Ella adds, “Kids to Kids is a community of people who work together to learn and have fun together. It is fun to teach the kids swimming or golf because they really want to learn and it showed me that I have something to teach them about sports. The kids teach me how to be positive and keep trying even if something is difficult.”
David Carroll, father of Avery who participates in our program, put it best.
“As a special needs parent one of the best parts about K2K’s program is I don’t have to worry about my son drowning anymore. One of the leading causes of death in the autism community, drowning, is being directly addressed by every single young adult who won these Presidential Service awards.
“Each week, another special need kid in Morris County, just like Avery, is patiently getting taught how to swim by the K2K mentors. It’s a remarkable gift of service these volunteers provide our community,” Carroll said.
Kids2Kids is a unique organization that specializes in teen mentors working one on one with special needs children in lifelong activities such as swimming, Taekwondo, golf, art, yoga and drama.
The teen mentors register with the program and confirm each session that they can attend our programs. The special needs parents can barely quantify what K2K has meant to their child, to them and their families. K2K has serviced over 100 children in the district and surrounding community by teaching them swim basics to prevent a leading cause of death in autistic children: Drowning.
This particular group of mentors doubled K2K’s service by providing a second swim session every Saturday for the two-year waiting list we could not accommodate until last January. The K2K program has a website where more information can be found: www.kidstokids.us
Congratulations to the following students for their outstanding commitment and awards for their earned service. (Editor’s note: Schools/ students from Greater Morristown indicated in bold-face):
Academy of St. Elizabeth: Lauren Iskander
Alexander Hamilton Elementary School: Avery Harris
Brooklawn Middle School: Shreya Venkataramani, Nimisha Venkataramani
Bucknell University: Mackenzie May
Coastal Carolina University: Victoria Ratliff
Elon University: Molly Kiel
University of Florida: Jack Hughes
Frelinghuysen Middle School: Ally Forsell, Ally Smith
GIll St Bernards School: Lucie Antonius
Hanover Park High School: Camryn Coffey
Madison High School: Alex Jacqmin, Ryan Selquist
Morris County School of Technology: Sarayu Gopinath
Morristown Beard School: Ashley Chen, Matt Ellerthorpe, Sonny Hughes, John Trombetta
Morris Hills High School: Srinithi Gopinath
Morris Plains Borough School: Trey Stahl
Morristown High School: Rachael Cheren, Hallie Douenias, Rachel Farbman, Camryn Grizzetti, Caroline Harris, Sean Manning, Grace Miller, Roman Razdan, Megan Rodriguez, Yusty Sanchez, Emily Skilton, Lauren Smith, Samantha Smith, Ella Sparacino, Sophia Sparacino
Mt Saint Dominic Academy: Jessica Ippolito
Mt Lakes High School: Juliana Scerbo, Max Sands
Parsippany-Troy Hills High School: Ruthwick Guddeti, Shurthi Gopinath
University of Pittsburgh: Vaishnavi Guddeti
Seton Hall Prep School: Michael Ippolito, Dominic Palumbo, Alex Wang
West Morris Mendham High School: Zoe Antonius, Grace Shin
