Teens Make a Difference

The Teens Make A Difference Awards Ceremony took place at Inland Center Mall earlier this month, recognizing local high school students for their outstanding volunteer service at community places such as libraries, hospitals, schools, nonprofits and community based organizations. A total of 55,704 hours of service were volunteered by 913 high school students from 10 schools in the past year. All students with 25 hours or more were recognized with awards and received a goodie bag filled with fun items donated by Arrowhead and Inland Empire United Way and Inland Center stores. The top student with the most hours volunteered was Aaliyah Sena from Carter High School, who won the “Top Dawg” Award for volunteering 882.5 hours, while the Top School Award went to Redlands High School for volunteering over 12,677 hours. The value of a volunteer service hour is $26.87 as determined by the Independent Sector; therefore, a contribution valued at $1,496,766 has been provided to our community. “The ‘Teens Make a Difference Awards’ ceremony was created by Inland Center Mall to encourage high school teens to volunteer in their communities and has grown from 35 students to 913. This program has helped thousands of high school students recognize the value of volunteering and helps them to become better students and community leaders,” said Terri Relf, Senior Marketing Manager at Inland Center Mall. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to recognize these teens who have unselfishly volunteered their time to help others in our community. I’ve had several parents come up to me afterwards and thank the mall and Arrowhead and Inland Empire United Way for putting on this program and how much it has meant to their kids who have volunteered and their whole family. It’s a great way to recognize and appreciate all the good things that young people do in our community.” Communities that have benefited from volunteer hours performed by the students are: Colton, Grand Terrace, Highland, Loma Linda, Redlands, Rialto and San Bernardino. “We recognize local teens that volunteer because they change the lives of others and as a result they learn skills to become the leaders of tomorrow,” said Doug Rowand, President of Arrowhead United Way. “Raising up young people today who will become tomorrow’s leaders and value giving back to our community is critical to the future of the Inland Empire,” said Gregory Bradbard, Inland Empire United Way CEO. “It is our pleasure investing in youth through the Teens Make A Difference program.” Since the inception of the awards ceremony in 1993, there has been a recorded a total number of 11,791 volunteers completing 1,214,628.53 hours. This is a program of Inland Center Mall, Arrowhead United Way’s Volunteers United program and Inland Empire United Way’s Volunteer Initiative, Hands On Inland Empire.