Lead Advisor to Girls Empowerment receives National Award!
- The Angaza Project | JW
- Jan 25, 2020
- 2 min read
We have more exciting news to share! Our Lead Advisor to Girls Empowerment received a National award for 2019 for the 2019 Corporation of National & Community Service with the Points of Light Office. In December, Kayla Lewis was nominated for this award for her service to Girls Empowerment with The Angaza Project and just before Christmas, we received the email notifying us that she was in fact issued this award! We kept it a secret although it was a challenge to do so. Kayla new she was nominated, but had no idea she also received it!
The first person we notified was her Mom, Brenda, who helped us to devise a plan to surprise her with it. Her Mom had the connections needed on the inside of where Kayla works so from there we were able to connect to the Principal. Principal Haynes was glad to help carry out the delivery and keep the surprise!
Principal Haynes felt that the Friday Rally on the Rug was just the time to do it. Rally on the Rug is a weekly staff meeting time to highlight the good work others have done over the week! Leading up to this, we had a Zoom planning session with the Principal without Kayla's knowledge, some calls with the Director of Communications (Andrew Pruitt) for the Charleston County School District (also without Kayla's knowledge) who reached out to News 5 for us!
We continued to have numerous chats with her Mom leading up to the day. In order to get her husband to the surprise, her Mom came up with a great plan of car troubles where Doug would come get her and help her get her car to the shop that morning. Since Doug did not have to be to work until the afternoon, Mom came up with something that would get him up and ready and out of the house without a second thought by Kayla (yes, Kayla, you were told a story, sorry!). Doug handed Kayla a beautiful bouquet of flowers (below).
You can watch her news story on this link |
https://www.live5news.com/2020/01/24/liberty-hill-academy-counselor-receives-national-service-award/
Kayla received this award for the more than 100 hours she devoted to creating lesson plans and activities for the Girls Empowerment in Kibera, Kenya. Through these lessons and activities, the girls worked on discovering their strengths, self worth, and how to build healthy relationships. After the first cohort of girls completed, one of the surveys came back with a note for Kayla that said she now knows she matters. Kayla continues to impact girls around the world with her creative work in the United States.
In 2003, the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation founded the Volunteer Service Award to recognize the important role of volunteers. This award honors people who have positively impacted communities while also inspiring others around them! Led by the Corporation for National and Community Service and managed in partnership with Points of Light, this program allows Certifying Organizations to recognize their most exceptional volunteers.