People Gather For Happy Village Volunteer Awards

The first ever awards night was hosted by the Happy Village Student Club, a volunteer club from The Korea Daily that help teens volunteer around the community. As a co-founder and member of the Happy Village Club, I was surrounded by my fellow members as they received recognition for their efforts.

The types of awards that were given included a gold and silver president award for volunteering a certain number of hours in a year. Specifically, the gold award was awarded for 100 hours of volunteer service while the silver award was awarded for under 100 hours. Another award, the volunteer idea award, was granted to the winners of a contest in which people had to submit a service project idea, perform the project, and write a report about the event. Ten people were awarded $1,000 each from Kevin Na, who made a generous donation of $10,000 for this year’s awards.

I was one of the recipients who won the volunteer idea award, and I wrote about my project called BookBuddies, which is a free book club that is run by my sister and me in the Santa Clarita Valley. We gather students from elementary schools to read books and to participate in activities. Our purpose is to create an environment where students can enjoy reading as a hobby.

Nine other people received the same award, and all had brilliant ideas and successful projects that helped change the community for better.

This awards ceremony was very enlightening for all the students in the Happy Village Club. This allowed the students and parents who work hard to help the world to receive the recognition they deserve. Every person in the dining room that night had a very enjoyable evening; more importantly, the recognition will further motivate volunteers to encourage others to make a change in the world.