On June 17, members of the AYLUS Chapel Hill Branch gathered together to celebrate the outstanding efforts of all volunteers this year, as well as honor some exceptional members with the President’s Award and the Chapel Hill Branch Service Award in recognition of their contribution as volunteers. Our President’s Award recipients are Luna Chen, Grace Gao, Matthew Guo, Kathryne Hong, Ethan Li, Eric Sun, and Nicholas Wang. And our Chapel Hill Branch Service Award recipients include Kevin Chen, Michelle Lan, Chris Wu, and Jack Xu. Flower bouquets and thank-you cards were distributed to our donors and workshop hosts, but we are just as thankful for all of our parents’ hard work as well. Following our award ceremony, volunteers generously gathered to clean up the community park, diligently picking up trash to provide a clean environment.
As a recap of this year, we’ve done a lot of work regarding the wellness of our nature and economy by cleaning and adopting two trails, Dry Creek Trail and Mills Spring Green Way, and a shoreline at Jordan Lake. We’ve also collaborated with the Good Hope and Piedmont Animal Farms to help out with farm work. Our branch consists of many talented musicians, allowing us the opportunity to volunteer monthly at Carol Woods to perform music for seniors. We’ve hosted many donations for Meals on Wheels, Kits to Heart, and worked with PORCH to organize and bag non-perishable foods to provide hunger-relief. In total we have had over 70 events since May of last year, and because of everyone’s outstanding efforts, we are honored to have been titled as Branch of the Month five times by the AYLF (American Youth Leadership Foundation). We have been selected as one of the Best Branches of the Year out of 137 branches across the US. We are grateful for everyone’s dedication, time, and hard work, and hope to continue this level of success in the years to come.
Volunteers who participated in this event are Joanna Yoon (2 hrs), Alice Cheng (2 hrs), Karen Lin (2 hrs), Ethan Li (2 hrs, DA), Joshua Yoon (2 hrs), Nicholas Wang (2 hrs), Luna Chen (2 hrs), Eric Sun (2 hrs), Jack Xu (2 hrs), Kevin Lu (2 hrs), and Kevin Chen (2 hrs)
Reported by Luna Chen