Pine View Senior Recognized Nationally

Pine View School senior Stevie Peacock has been named one of 22 teenagers honored with the title of “2011 Nestlé Very Best In Youth.” According to a Sarasota County School District press release, the teens were chosen for their academic achievements and for exceptional community service for causes ranging from humanitarian relief efforts to protecting endangered species.

In its 14th year, the Nestlé Very Best In Youth program recognizes young people who demonstrate leadership ability and individual initiative to positively impact the world.  The release said nearly 3,500 teens submitted essays and letters of recommendation to enter this year’s competition. 

Stevie is an Olympic torchbearer, an Ambassador Girl Scout and a Congressional Award winner. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the Key Club, the high school affiliate of Kiwanis International. She has been a Teen Leader for the Healthy Girl’s Task Force, was named a Young Achiever by the International Leadership Network and helped fund a school in Cambodia, the release said.

Her most visible accomplishment has been the creation and management of Project KINDNESS (Kids In Need Deserve New Elementary School Supplies). The project grew out of her experience in fourth grade with Project Building Buddies, in which Pine View students helped collect supplies for students at Memorial Elementary School in Arcadia after Hurricane Charley.

Stevie learned through that contact that the students at Memorial needed help even before the hurricane. The district said that as a fifth-grader she launched Project KINDNESS with a group of friends and family to ensure that the students continued to get help.

Since 2005 she has collected donations of supplies and money to provide school supplies and holiday gifts to the students at Memorial. She also has expanded the project to include providing gifts for children in hospitals and backpack full of school supplies for neighborhoods served by Habitat for Humanity, the release said. Project KINDNESS is now a not-for-profit corporation.

Stevie hopes to attend Yale, Brown or Princeton University to study international relations. Her goal is eventually to work for the United Nations to improve support for children and education in undeveloped countries.

Each winner also will receive $1,000 to contribute to a charity or project of his or her choice and will be flown to Los Angeles for a red-carpet award ceremony.

Pine View Principal Steve Largo said Stevie is very deserving of recognition for her humanitarian efforts. “This award is another in a long list of well-deserved recognitions Stevie has received for her amazing community service efforts,” Largo said. “She consistently demonstrates the importance of giving back to others and has been doing