LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 13 out a plaque, and the application came back to me. Senator Stec began presenting the award and what it was for. The different types of leadership qualities and accomplishments required to be awarded. As he finished and called me to the stage, my classmates gave a round of applause and the yearbook team was quick to try and get pictures of the hand shake but weren't quick enough so we had to stage it again so they could get the shot. Thankfully for my classmates, it was still a quick ceremony and we all got to go back to the important business at hand–lunch. I got to stay behind and talk with the Senator Stec. For a little while we had our photos taken for his press release. It was a nice feeling to get the recognition for my efforts, but I'd do it even if there was no reward. It may sound cliche, but the reward is being able to help the people around me. More recently, I had the honor of being nominat- ed for the USA Football's "Heart of a Giant Award." The Heart Of A Giant Award is very similar to the Sen- ator's award in that one morning, I had received an email from Mr. Hulbert, asking me to apply for the Heart of a Giant Award. The first thing I read on the website as I opened the ap- plication was, "This award seeks to find and highlight Tri-State high school tackle and flag football athletes, student managers, student mascots, or other desig- nated student team members who demonstrate that extra something special. The ones that have a relent- less work ethic and unmatched love for the game." As soon as I read that, I assumed it was going to be similar to my Senator's award essay. However it was an entirely different type of application. The Heart of a Giant Award is defined as the athlete who is most involved in their community through not just leadership, but service and positive influence. The process for the competition is set up so that you fill out an application and it gets reviewed by the program to see if you have what they're looking for. If you meet their qualifications, you get put into a weekly pool vote with other nominees. If you advance, by getting more votes than your fellow nominees, you can win up to $10,000 for your high school football program for new equipment to help grow the sport. When I was accepted as a nominee I was put into the Week 6 competition. This meant that from October 12th to October 29th, I had to gar- ner as many votes as possible to move onto the next round. It was an amazing thing to see my community gather around this goal and be as involved as they were. There were sever- al times when I was walking down the street and I would randomly get recognized as the Heart of a Giant par- ticipant. I would get told, "I voted for you today!" no less than six times a day. I wasn't able to win in the Week 6 nomination and sadly didn't make the wild card round this November. Winning would've been a great thing for our school's football program, but nothing could beat seeing our community as invested as they were in coming togeth- er to try and beat out those larger communities in the city. Another large part of my senior year has been my

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