Contact: Antonia Ferrier (202) 224-5344
Wednesday, May 10, 2006

**Photo Available**

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) met today with Kathleen Casasa-Blouin of Portland and Kerry Kay of Bath, state winners of the Prudential Spirit of Community Award.

“I would like to congratulate Kathleen and Kerry on winning the prestigious Prudential Spirit of Community Award,” said Snowe. “Given their extensive community involvement activities, I am not surprised that they were chosen to receive this honor. Both of these enterprising and selfless young women serve as role models to youth and adults across the state of Maine. Their dedication to their communities and their causes is inspiring.”

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards honors young people in middle level and high school grades for outstanding volunteer service to their communities. Created in 1995 by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), the awards constitute the United States' largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteering. Over the past 11 years, the program has honored more than 70,000 young volunteers at the local, state and national level.

Two young Americans—one high school student and one middle-level student—in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia are named State Honorees in the 2006 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. These Honorees receive $1,000 awards, engraved silver medallions, and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for four days of recognition events.

Kathleen Casasa-Blouin, 18, of Portland, Maine, a senior at Deering High School, helps plan and lead counseling programs to ease the emotional trauma that children typically experience when their parents divorce or separate. Kathleen first became involved in this cause as a fund-raiser for the Kids First Center in Portland, which offers divorce support-group sessions for children and adolescents. After raising more than $350 to help kids from low-income families attend the program, she began volunteering as a co-facilitator at the center, helping a social worker conduct 1½-hour sessions for kids 5 to 14 years old once a week for six weeks. Kathleen helps plan a theme for each session, leads discussions, organizes activities, and assists in other ways.

Kerry Kay, 14, of Bath, Maine, an eighth-grader at Bath Middle School, volunteers to help Alzheimer’s patients at a local nursing home, collects food and other donations for an animal shelter, and makes sandwiches for local firefighters and policemen. At the nursing home, Kerry organized a “Red Hat” activities group for Alzheimer’s patients after observing how much happier the patients seemed when other people were around them. With help from her mother and the home’s activities director, Kerry planned projects, collected red hats and other fun items, helped the patients take part in the activities, and took pictures to create a display board for patients and their families. When Kerry learned that the animal shelter needed food and other items, she created collection boxes and organized a donation campaign at her school. She also made and delivered “hero” sandwiches to thank firefighters and police officers for their work.

Photo available at: http://www.snowe.senate.gov/images/constituents/Students%20004.jpg

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