LMA student wins Prudential Community of Spirit Silver Medal

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Laurence Manning sophomore Alyssa Gottheiner was presented April 11 with the Prudential Community of Spirit silver medal, with the entire school body filling the gymnasium to see the girl's achievement.

"We hope that by identifying and honoring these young volunteers andholding them up as role models, others will be inspired to volunteer, too," said Tracy Abraham, financial advisor with The South Carolina Financial Group, a Prudential Advisors company. “Alyssa has been singled out from all of the high school students in South Carolina for outstanding service to her community. Alyssa organized a student essay contest and a community day to help improve relations between law enforcement agencies and the residents of her county.”

Alyssa will travel to Washington, D.C., for four days, along with one high school and one middle school student from each state and from D.C. While there, she will receive $1,000. From the group of students, 10 national finalists will be selected for further honors. Each finalist will receive $5,000 for their charity; $5,000 and a gold medal for themselves;l and an engraved crystal plaque for their high school.

The program honors students who initiated a project or showed exceptional leadership with an existing one, spent significant effort, overcoming all obstacles, provided a large impact to the community, and gained insights and skills, demonstrating a sound understanding of the value of service.

“We read some of the backgrounds of the other winners and even some who were honorable mentions, and they were amazing projects,” said Alyssa’s mother, Kelly Gottheiner.

Proud of her daughter’s community projects, Kelly supports Alyssa’s efforts and drive to make a positive change in her school, church and community.

“She learned a lot about sponsorships from this,” said Kelly. “She learned about how to use donated money and how to balance a checkbook.”

Alyssa isn’t one to grandstand, however. She made sure others were credited with the help they provided.

“Watching the news and seeing all the things that happened where police officers were killed mostly gave me the idea,” said Alyssa. While she said her mother helped her with the idea, she noted a church member gave her the idea to go beyond the intended essay contest and create the community day.

Although she spearheaded the event, she involved her parents, sister and volunteers from her church, including her entire youth group. She arranged for sponsors, coordinated with area police departments to have police cars available for children to climb into, ensured food was available, set up raffles, rented bounce houses and planned games for the day. The event was dedicated to Deputy Mason Moore, who was killed in the line of duty in 2017.