Montana Students Receive National Honors for Community Service
“Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts pays tribute to Missoula and Great Falls students. Cut Bank student a finalist.
Keegan, a senior at Loyola Sacred Heart High School, has been refurbishing old laptop computers for the past several years, and donating them to students and young adults who cannot afford to buy one. “I have always had a keen interest in working with computers,” said Keegan, “and have found that I am very good at refurbishing people’s old computers to make them run almost like new.” Recognizing the vital role computers play in students’ education, and the fact that many students cannot afford them, Keegan realized he could use his skills to fill a “technological void” in his community.
Initially, Keegan conducted his project only within the Loyola Sacred Heart community, seeking donated computers through the school’s marketing director and providing restored machines to fellow students. The first recipient, he said, “was so thrilled she started crying.” Keegan later decided that young people throughout Missoula could benefit from his program, so he established a website to promote his service. Before long, local news media picked up on his story, state agencies began sending him their old laptops, and the local school district asked Keegan to extend his program into the public schools. To manage his growing enterprise, Keegan recruited other high school students to serve on a management board and help coordinate donations and deliveries. Keegan’s “Laptops for Students” program has given away more than 100 refurbished machines so far, and he is encouraging others to start similar programs in their communities with detailed instructions on his website.
Jayson, an eighth-grader at East Middle School, volunteers to assist kids with special needs both as a unified partner for a Special Olympics athlete and as an assistant in the special education room at his school. Jayson’s mother is a special ed teacher at a local high school, and he wanted to get involved in helping young people with disabilities, too. He asked to have his school schedule changed so that he could work in the special ed room at East Middle School, helping the students there with their assignments and doing whatever else the teacher wants him to do.
Montana's Distinguished Finalists:
Shelbi Fitzpatrick, 18, of Cut Bank, Mont., a senior at Cut Bank High School, founded a support and service group at her school called "Helping Others Provides Encouragement (H.O.P.E.)," and serves on the Montana Student Advisory Board, where she lends her voice to important discussions on bullying, graduation rates, academic success and social challenges. Shelbi, who founded H.O.P.E. as a positive way to help her peers overcome everyday issues, learned that coming together to help others created a common bond that enabled them to also help each other.
Emily Jones, 16, of Stevensville, Mont., a member of the Ravalli County 4-H in Hamilton and a junior at Ravalli Classical Academy, has raised $1,500 to support Burmese refugee children living in an orphanage in Thailand by repurposing feed bags into tote bags and selling them through her project, "Bags4Burma." Emily, who has been working with the pastor at her church to connect with the orphanage, went on a missionary trip to Thailand to visit with the children who have benefitted from her service.