SHS senior Kaitlin Habeeb receives Presidential Volunteer Service Award
Kaitlin Habeeb, right, with friend Kaitlin Litz, whom she met through Capernaum. / Photo courtesy of Scott Habeeb.
Salem High School senior Kaitlin Habeeb has received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award, which recognizes students “for outstanding community service,” according to SHS vice principal (and Kaitlin’s dad) Scott Habeeb.
Kaitlin’s service work has focused largely on working with students with special needs as part of the YoungLife program, Capernaum. In 2011 Kaitlin first attended the Capernaum summer camp in Rockbridge County, at which each camper was paired with a buddy.
“Being a buddy for someone else was the best week of her life,” Scott Habeeb said of Kaitlin’s camping experience.
She loved it so much, in fact, that she started the Be A Buddy Club at Salem High School as a junior the following year. The club pairs members with special needs students at the high school. Kaitlin’s sister, Kelsey Habeeb–a freshman at SHS, is also involved with the Be A Buddy Club.
Kaitlin’s involvement in Capernaum and her work with the Be A Buddy Club has even inspired her other younger sister, McKenna Habeeb, a fifth grader at South Salem Elementary, who wants to start a Be A Buddy Club at Andrew Lewis Middle School next year, according to Scott. McKenna is already a part of South Salem’s Autism Awareness Team.
“This group of students who are sometimes isolated have the opportunity to interact with the rest of the high school,” Scott said of the special needs students. “As a father, it’s been exciting to watch, and as an administrator it’s encouraging to see her start a club that will last beyond her time [at Salem High School].”
Kaitlin will receive her certificate for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award during the high school’s senior awards ceremony in May.
February 20, 2013 - 2:00 PM
South Salem has an “Autism Awareness Team”? That is news to me, considering I have two children with Autism that attend there. Never heard of it.
Belle – It’s actually called the Ambassadors for Autism. Last year South Salem offered it as part of its ASAP (after school activities program). It then continued to have activities after ASAP ended – such as a field trip. It is being offered by South Salem as part of the ASAP program again this year.
I am well aware of the short after school program offered. Yes, I saw it was again offered this year, and again the small group was filled. Because ASAP is first come, first serve until they meet the headcount, it makes the group exclusive, as opposed to an open group. That hardly meets the description of a true “team”. And while I am aware that there is limited space due to volunteers, I still feel that a temporary after school program, is just that. Perhaps something more permanent, year round, that wasn’t limited to a half hour or so for one day a week for four weeks would better fit the description of the team on the magnitude eluded in this article.
Wow, Belle. You sound kind of bitter. Never imagined someone could find a way to complain about one sentence describing an elementary school child who is interested in serving others.