Award honors teen’s compassion
Published: April 20, 2007
Kimberly High School senior Erik Kingsley has learned volunteering is a life-altering process that forever changes both the person giving help and the person receiving it.
When Kingsley first began assisting children with disabilities through a local TOPSoccer program, he learned how to sign words such as ‘kick’ so he could communicate with his young, hearing-impaired partner on the playing field.
“At the end her mom came up and thanked me for playing with her,” said Kingsley, 18.
“She said it was the first time she’s ever really run around and played for soccer, and she really enjoyed herself.”
His experiences with TOPSoccer have motivated him to pursue a career in researching and refining adaptive technology.
“I just noticed that a lot of the kids, they couldn’t do a lot of the stuff we could and I just felt bad that they didn’t have the same opportunities,” said Kingsley, who plans to attend Purdue University in fall.
“Biomedical engineering gives me the opportunity to try to solve the problem.”
For showing resourcefulness, commitment and compassion beyond his years, Kingsley will receive the Youth Scholarship Award during the 10th annual Celebrating Our Volunteers event April 12 at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in downtown Appleton.
The Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region Inc. and The Post-Crescent are sponsoring the event. Community First Credit Union is the sponsor of Kingsley’s award.
Kingsley has spearheaded projects for his high school’s Key Club, including a grocery shopping service for residents at Hallmark Place in Kimberly.
“I noticed not a lot of people could drive (to the store),” Kingsley said.
“So I said, we can do it for them.”
Kingsley’s mother, Rosann, who nominated him for the award, said she and her husband, Les, enjoy watching their son’s excitement build with each new volunteer project he sees through from start to finish.
“This started when he was very young,” Rosann Kingsley said.
She shared one of the family’s treasured stories, set back in Kingsley’s early elementary school days.
“He was coming home from school, asking me all these questions about people who don’t have money and what could we do to help them,” Rosann Kingsley said.
“We had just purchased him a new jacket. A couple days after he asked me that, he came home without his jacket. He said, ‘There was a little boy next to me who couldn’t afford a jacket so I gave it to him.”
Due to Kingsley’s initiative, the Kingsley family was able to help the little boy, who returned Kingsley’s jacket but then received another in good condition that Kingsley had just outgrown, she said.
“He’s just continued with that type of attitude,” Rosann Kingsley said.
“Any neighbors, or anyone needing anything, he’s always there to help without being asked.”
For a volunteers class, Kingsley, also a student athlete, visited Janssen Elementary School in Combined Locks to assist physical education teacher Pamela Herrling.
“We have a character education program at Janssen that involves, ‘If you have a big problem you tell an adult; if you have a little problem, you work it out,’” Herrling said.
“After a while when kids tattle it gets hard to listen to.”
After brainstorming with Herrling, Kingsley returned to Janssen with “Mr. Erik’s Mr. Tellme,” a cardboard cutout that served as a listening ear for first- and second-graders.
“He was an awesome role model for the kids,” Herrling said.
“He has that air of just being unconditionally accepting of everyone.”
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