Congratulations to Nora Elnahas 2010 Alexandria Regional Council of the United Way of the National Capital Area Bill Perkins Outstanding Youth Service Award!

The Bill Perkins Outstanding Youth Service Award is presented to an individual 18 years of age or younger who has demonstrated outstanding volunteer service to the community in the fields of health, welfare, and/or recreation.  

Nora Elnahas is a junior at TC Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia.

Nora is one of those rare human “magnets” – a young person who not only gives generously of her own time and talents, but is also able to recruit dozens of her friends and classmates to participate in service that benefits both their own community and even some that are far from home. Every hour that Nora volunteers – more than 100 in the last year alone – is multiplied many times by her ability to lead others into meaningful service.

For one so young, Nora has already accomplished a great deal. At school, she is consistently an honors student; is a “peer partner” for disabled students; is vice chair of the “best buddies” club, which also works with the disabled; has raised “box of love” funds and supplies for underprivileged children; and was captain of her freshman volleyball team.

In her community, she has donated labor to river cleanups, food drives, outdoor art fairs, nonprofit fundraisers, has volunteered for Red Cross Blood Drives -- and still made time to become certified in CPR.

Nora’s abilities were truly highlighted, however, by two major efforts in 2009:

- Her outreach and organizing abilities resulted in the donation of nearly 50 bicycles to Bikes for the World, a nonprofit that rehabilitates the bikes and sends them to developing nations. This was a major logistical exercise that would challenge even the most experienced volunteer, and a symbol of Nora’s international perspective.

- She willingly took on the challenge of serving as Vice President of Volunteer Alexandria’s Big Event Youth Committee. The Big Event is an annual, youth-led event that recruits young people for service projects in Alexandria sponsored by nonprofit groups. Under Nora’s leadership, more than 100 young people put in more than 600 hours at 16 nonprofits during the 2009 Big Event. Nora also helped write a grant application for funds to support the effort. It is clear that the success of this event was thanks in large part to Nora’s efforts to engage and lead her classmates at TC Williams High School. This year, Nora will again hold a leadership position in the Big Event – and is already recruiting others to join her on the planning committee!

There is little question that Alexandria is better off for Nora’s efforts. And in the many years that we here at Volunteer Alexandria have recruited and managed volunteers, we have rarely seen a young person with Nora’s commitment to service, and capability to think things through, and then follow through. Once again congratulations to Nora for all her hard work and leadership!