Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank congratulates Devin Srivastava, 17, of Spartanburg (center) and Jackson Silverman, 10, of Charleston (right) on being named South Carolina's top two youth volunteers for 2016 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. Devin and Jackson were honored at a ceremony on Sunday, May 1 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, where they each received a $1,000 award. (Photo: Zach Harrison Photography)

Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank congratulates Devin Srivastava, 17, of Spartanburg (center) and Jackson Silverman, 10, of Charleston (right) on being named South Carolina's top two youth volunteers for 2016 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. Devin and Jackson were honored at a ceremony on Sunday, May 1 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, where they each received a $1,000 award. (Photo: Zach Harrison Photography)

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jackson Silverman, 10, of Charleston, S.C., was named one of America’s top 10 youth volunteers of 2016 today by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards during the program’s 21st annual national award ceremony at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. Selected from a field of more than 29,000 youth volunteers from across the country, Jackson has earned the title of National Honoree, along with a personal award of $5,000, an engraved gold medallion, a crystal trophy for his school, and a $5,000 grant from The Prudential Foundation for a nonprofit charitable organization of his choice.

Also honored this week in Washington, D.C., was Devin Srivastava, 17, of Spartanburg. Devin and Jackson were named South Carolina’s top youth volunteers in February, and were officially recognized last night at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History along with the top two youth volunteers in each other state and the District of Columbia. At that event, each of the 102 State Honorees for 2016 received $1,000 awards as well as personal congratulations from Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank. The honorees each also received engraved silver medallions and all-expense-paid trips with a parent to Washington, D.C., for this week’s recognition events.

Jackson, a fifth-grader at Advanced Studies Magnet-Haut Gap Middle School, persuaded a local food bank to let him start a youth volunteer program there in 2013 that has by now packed more than 14,000 weekend lunch bags for kids in need. “One in four kids go hungry in my community, but kids can’t change their lives all by themselves,” said Jackson. “That is why I wanted to help them.” He remembered how fun it was to pack bags of food for the hungry at his church when he was a little boy, and knew his local food bank prepared meal bags for kids who got free lunches at school, but had little to eat on weekends. But when he offered to help, he was told the food bank didn’t accept volunteers of his age.

Jackson started his own nonprofit organization called “I Heart Hungry Kids” and, after a little persuasion, got the food bank to agree to a kid volunteer program. He invited his friends to get involved, talked to a newspaper reporter, built a website and Facebook page, and designed a T-shirt to raise money. At Jackson’s first food bank “packing party,” 25 youngsters packed 150 bags of food. Now, 175 kids are packing 1,500 bags a month. “It makes me feel incredible that all these kids want to work together to make other kids’ lives better,” said Jackson, who also has spoken to more than 2,000 people at schools, churches and clubs about the problem of childhood hunger.

Devin, a junior at Spartanburg Day School, founded a nonprofit organization promoting an innovative technology that can enable cancer patients to retain their hair during chemotherapy. When Devin’s aunt was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, “she was more terrified about losing her hair than chemotherapy,” said Devin. After intense research, his aunt learned about “cold cap therapy,” a little-known technique in which breast cancer patients wear a specialized frozen cap before, during and after chemotherapy to keep their hair from falling out. Devin discovered that most cancer patients – and even many doctors – are unaware of the technology, but that saving their hair can have a dramatic impact on the success of their treatment and sense of well-being.

Seeing an opportunity to make an impact, Devin spent months working to set up a nonprofit he calls “chemoHAIRapy,” and then built a website to start spreading the word about cold cap therapy. But he wanted to do more than that; he wanted to actually purchase cold caps for his local hospital. So he organized a charity golf tournament last summer. He secured a course for the tourney, worked with graphic designers to design a logo, sought publicity from local media, recruited golfers, and solicited prizes and sponsorships from local businesses. The $9,000 he raised is being used to print brochures about cold cap therapy and to buy an initial set of cold caps for the hospital. “My ultimate goal is to have chemoHAIRapy become well-known in my community and throughout South Carolina so that more families can go through the chemotherapy process with their dignity intact,” said Devin.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards is a national youth recognition program sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

“By using their time and talents to better their communities, these young people have achieved great things – and become examples for us all,” said John Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, Inc. “Congratulations to an exemplary group of honorees.”

“These students have demonstrated a truly remarkable level of leadership and commitment in the course of their volunteer service, and it’s an honor to celebrate their accomplishments,” said Michael Allison, president of NASSP. “We commend each and every one of them for a job well done.”

In addition to Jackson, these are the other 2016 National Honorees:

Kayla Abramowitz, 14, of North Palm Beach, Fla., an eighth-grader at Watson B. Duncan Middle School, has collected nearly 10,000 DVDs, books and other items for 81 hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses in all 50 states through her nonprofit organization, “Kayla Cares 4 Kids.”

Connor Archer, 18, of Stillwater, Maine, a senior at Old Town High School, works to educate the public about autism and the challenges faced by people with autism like himself, and has raised more than $12,000 for organizations that help people with special needs.

Grace Davis, 11, of Louisville, Ky., a fifth-grader at Greathouse Shryock Traditional Elementary School, has helped raise more than $140,000 over the past four years to care for babies born prematurely by distributing piggy banks to students in her community and encouraging them to fill them up.

Maria Keller, 15, of Plymouth, Minn., a sophomore at Orono High School, founded a nonprofit called “Read Indeed” when she was 8 years old, and has since collected more than 1.7 million books for children in need in 50 states and 17 other countries.

James Lea, 17, of Las Vegas, Nev., a junior at Faith Lutheran Middle School and High School, helps brighten the holiday season for children who have recently lost a parent by surprising their families with an anonymous gift each day for 12 days, tied to the theme of the song “12 Days of Christmas.”

Jungin Angie Lee, 17, of Naperville, Ill., a junior at Metea Valley High School, co-founded a nonprofit organization that has generated nearly $200,000 over the past nine years through annual fundraising events to help find a cure for her rare neuromuscular disease.

Zachary Rice, 13, of Long Valley, N.J., an eighth-grader at Long Valley Middle School, initiated an annual 5K run/walk that has raised more than $50,000 over the past three years to provide gaming systems and other fun distractions for young patients at Goryeb Children’s Hospital in Morristown.

Clare Szalkowski, 10, of Dubuque, Iowa, a fifth-grader at Hoover Elementary School, started “Clare Cares” over two years ago to “build friendships and make our community a better place” by organizing projects that benefit bullied children, homeless and hungry people, and others in need of assistance.

Alisha Zhao, 17, of Portland, Ore., a junior at Lincoln High School, created a club at her school to provide services to local homeless people, and then founded a nonprofit organization called “Kids First Project” to expand her efforts and focus on the needs of homeless youth.

The distinguished selection committee that chose the National Honorees was chaired by Strangfeld and included Allison of NASSP; Andrea Bastiani Archibald, chief girl expert for Girl Scouts of the USA; Robert Bisi, senior public affairs manager for the Corporation for National and Community Service; Tracy Hoover, president of Points of Light; Reneé Jackson, senior manager of education programs at the National PTA; Maxine Margaritis, vice president of volunteer services for the American Red Cross; Peggy McLeod, Ed.D., deputy vice president, education and workforce development at the National Council of La Raza; Dru Tomlin, director of middle level services for the Association for Middle Level Education; Frederick J. Riley, national director, urban & youth development at YMCA of the USA; and two 2015 National Honorees: AJ Mattia of Washington Township, N.J., a sophomore at Holy Cross Academy, and Morlan Osgood of Loveland, Ohio, a senior at Loveland High School.

Youth volunteers in grades 5-12 were invited to apply for 2016 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards last fall through schools, Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and affiliates of the HandsOn Network.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program was created in 1995 to identify and recognize young people for outstanding volunteer service – and, in so doing, inspire others to volunteer, too. In the past 21 years, the program has honored more than 115,000 young volunteers at the local, state and national level.

For more information about The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and this year’s honorees, visit http://spirit.prudential.com or www.nassp.org/spirit.

About NASSP

The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is the leading organization of and voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and school leaders from across the United States. The association connects and engages school leaders through advocacy, research, education, and student programs. NASSP advocates on behalf of all school leaders to ensure the success of each student and strengthens school leadership practices through the design and delivery of high quality professional learning experiences. Reflecting its long-standing commitment to student leadership development, NASSP administers the National Honor Society, National Junior Honor Society, National Elementary Honor Society, and National Association of Student Councils. For more information about NASSP, located in Reston, VA, visit www.nassp.org.

About Prudential Financial

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit www.news.prudential.com.

Editors: For pictures of the Spirit of Community Awards program logo and medallions, click here: http://bit.ly/Xi4oFW

For B-roll of South Carolina’s honorees at the 2016 national recognition events, contact Prudential’s Harold Banks at (973) 216-4833 or harold.banks@prudential.com.