The Argosy Citizenship Award was presented recently to several members of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. The teens will receive a $1,000 stipend: $500 to implement a community service project and $500 toward their education. Left to Right: Natalie Cooper – Boys & Girls Clubs Director of Adolescent & Holistic Health Initiatives, Deone Griffin, Dishay Wilson, Breanna Wiggins, Juaquin Aleman, Nadia Givens, and David Calzada. Not pictured: Mariah Thompson.

The Argosy Foundation recently presented seven Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee members the Argosy Citizenship Award in recognition of their leadership and commitment to community service. Club members were honored in a pre-concert awards ceremony before the East Town Association’s “Jazz in the Park” in Cathedral Square, 520 E. Wells St., Milwaukee.

Since 2004, the Argosy Foundation and Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee have partnered to promote leadership and community involvement among youth. Each Club award winner must be at least 11 years old and at most a junior in high school to be eligible for the award. The Argosy Citizenship Award winners each receive a $1,000 grant: $500 to implement their community service project and $500 to go towards his or her education.

This year’s award winners proposed creative community service projects to address a range of issues from unequal treatment of children with special needs to the lack of school supplies needed for a successful academic year.

• Mariah Thompson, age 11, of the Engleburg School Boys & Girls Club, plans to coordinate a volunteer project, Bike Camp, with  Variety Children’s Charity, which provides mobility equipment for students with special needs. Mariah would like to assist with the Beyond Bike Design Tour by making gift bags and paying for the transportation that the Bike Camp participants would need to come volunteer at the event. Her plan is to make sure special needs students are able to experience something they have never been able to do before.
• David Calzada, age 14, of the Mitchell Integrated Arts School Boys & Girls Club, plans to work with its Keystone Club members to reach out to the Saint Ann’s Rest Home community. David would like to record and document the elderly’s life stories into a book that would be memorialized in the Alexander Mitchell School Library. He believes it is very important that the people of Milwaukee’s south side know about the history of the area they live.
• Deone Griffin, age 17, of the Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club, will implement an all-girls basketball camp for girls ages 9-14 to improve their basketball and athletic skills. Speakers will also come to the camp to teach the girls about the importance of good sportsmanship and how to gain leadership skills.
• Dishay Wilson, age 15, of the Augusta M. LaVarnway Boys & Girls Club, will lead a back-to-school festival to help the low-income families who cannot afford school supplies. Dishay will include two workshops during the festival: one will focus on developing good study habits and the other workshop will focus on ways to resolve conflicts.
• Breanna Wiggins, age 18, of the Roger & Leona Fitzsimonds Boys & Girls Club, will improve the games room at the Club. A mural full of encouraging quotes will be painted on the walls of the games room and new equipment will be installed to attract new members and keep them involved in the Club.
• Nadia Givens, age 13, of the Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club,  will assist the Pathfinders Organization by donating bus tickets to the clients of the facility. The Pathfinders are in great need for bus tickets because this allows the members to be more self-sufficient in getting to all of their important and everyday locations.
• Juaquin E. Aleman, age 14, of the Don & Sallie Davis Boys & Girls Club, will start a “pay it forward” program where one person does one act of random kindness to three random people. This program will teach people how to be selfless and respect others by being generous to people in random and unexpected ways.