PIERRE – Oscar Kavanagh, 18, of Brookings and Bria Neff, 11, of Sioux Falls this week were named South Dakota’s top two youth volunteers of 2018 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards
The nationwide program honors young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. As state honorees, Kavanagh and Neff each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expense-paid trip in late April to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for four days of national recognition events.
During the trip, 10 students will be named America’s top youth volunteers of 2018.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, now in its 23rd year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Kavanagh was nominated by Brookings High School.
The BHS senior formed a nonprofit organization, FREE (Funding for Reservation Education and Equality), to raise money to buy educational supplies for schools on Native American reservations in his state.
In 2004, Oscar’s family moved from Ireland to run a dairy farm in South Dakota.
“I remember how shocked my parents were to find how the great people of the Plains were living in destitution,” Kavanagh said.
As he grew older, he noticed a general apathy among his classmates over the disparities between life on the reservation and their own environment.
“They grew up knowing about the reservations and took their plight as unchangeable,” he said. But Kavanagh couldn’t accept that.
Two years ago, he set out to learn all he could about his state’s nine reservations, concentrating especially on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He read books about the Lakota people, met with individuals who had donated books or organized relief efforts on the reservations, and contacted reservation schools to learn about curriculum, student statistics and aid programs.
After meeting with the staff of the Pine Ridge Indian School, he decided to contribute to its greenhouse project, which teaches students how to grow their own food, an important skill on a huge reservation with minimal access to fresh produce.
Raising money through Kickstarter and GoFundMe websites, and through appeals to family and friends, Kavanagh was able to raise more than $1,200 to help pay for upkeep and supplies for the greenhouse, as well as books for classrooms at several reservations.
Neff, a home-schooled fifth-grader, has raised more than $13,000 and worldwide awareness to help save endangered species by selling and displaying her paintings of more than 200 vulnerable animals and landscapes.
When she was 8 years old, she won an art contest sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and learned that there are more than 3,000 endangered species around the world.
“I was so upset I told my mom I wanted to do something about it,” said Neff. She decided she would paint pictures of endangered animals, sell them, and donate the proceeds to organizations that work to ensure a future for these creatures.
Over the past three years, Neff has spent more than 500 hours painting, researching, educating, and raising awareness of endangered animals. She sells her paintings on Facebook, Instagram and on her own website, and posts information about various species and the environment on her Facebook page, “Faces of the Endangered.”
In addition, she has published two educational coloring books, creates conservation cards, and gives presentations to organizations and schools.
Her efforts have benefited numerous animal conservation organizations, including IFAW, the Jane Goodall Institute, The Wolf Conservation Center in New York, The Great Plains Zoo, and her local humane society.
“I want all kids to know they can help save animals and the planet, too,” Neff said. “We just need to work together and believe that we can do great things.”
