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By CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON chrisj@leader.net
Wednesday, February 09, 2000 Page: 1A
Both of the top youth volunteers in the state live and do their good works
in Luzerne County. Ashley Feldman of Shavertown and Matthew “Penny Boy”
Nonnemacher of Hazleton were named Pennsylvania’s best youth volunteers
Tuesday as part of the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, sponsored by the
life insurance giant. They were selected from applicants submitted by 340
schools statewide. “That’s hard to believe,” said Feldman of her selection.
“I know there are a lot of people doing a lot of wonderful things.” Feldman,
18, a senior at Wyoming Seminary, was honored for her efforts to fix bicycles
and donate them to charity. Nonnemacher, 11, a sixth-grader at St. Joseph
Memorial School, spearheaded a fund drive that collected nearly 2 million
pennies for the United Way of Greater Hazleton. A third Luzerne County
student also was one of eight distinguished finalists in Pennsylvania. Laura
Simon, 16, of Swoyersville, a junior at Wyoming Valley West High School, led
an effort to repair the homes of two poor families in the Appalachian region
of Tennessee. About 10 years ago, Feldman and her older sisters, Courtney and
Barrett, started “Bikes for Tykes.” They cleaned and fixed donated bicycles
and gave them to the needy. “I sort of feel like it’s not completely right
to be seen as a project I started myself because (my sisters) were really the
spark plugs for this,” Feldman said. But when her sisters went away to
college, Feldman carried on. She estimates that together they have fixed more
than 500 bicycles. In April 1998, she collected 180 bikes during one drive.
“People seemed to enjoy it so much, it seemed silly not to do it,” she said.
The Prudential award includes an engraved silver medallion and $1,000 cash.
Feldman said she hopes to reinvest the money in Bikes for Tykes or use it to
start a similar program next year at college. “I would hope whatever money
they give helps to improve whatever causes people took up to get the award,”
said Feldman, a field hockey star who is heading to Brown University next
year. Nonnemacher has gained national recognition for his determined penny
collecting. During two months in the fall of 1998, he gathered 1,819,691
pennies ($18,196.91), mostly in plastic jars left next to cash registers. In
a class assignment, Matthew wrote that his dream to make the world a better
place was “that people help the poor people.” He got the idea to collect
pennies after writing a letter to a newspaper, asking for ideas to raise money
for the poor. Since then, he has been featured on “Good Morning, America!”
in Time for Kids magazine and in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! cartoon. To
teach others how to run penny drives, his parents John and Sandi Nonnemacher
started a Web site, www.pennyboy.org. Along with their cash awards,
Nonnemacher and Feldman get a free trip to Washington, D.C., on May 8, where
they will join 102 other state honorees. Ten of them will be named national
winners and receive an additional $5,000, a gold medallion and crystal trophy.
Call Johnson at 829-7226.