5 Haverford School District Students Earn Humanitarian Award

HAVERFORD TOWNSHIP, PA — Five students in the School District of Haverford Township were recently honored for their volunteer work to enrich the school community.

Three high school students and two middle school students received the Domenick J. Recchiuti Humanitarian Award as they embody the spirit of true humanitarians.

The awardees are Nora Healey, Lily Walker, June Park, Nhi Nguyen, and Tommy Barnes.

Domenick Recchiuti’s long association with the School District began in the 1950s when his children attended the former Chestnutwold Elementary School.

He served as President and Treasurer of the PTO setting in motion a lifelong commitment to school and community that spanned four decades.

Recchiuti was an active community volunteer who also served as a School Director, devoting much of his time to helping others. He was a familiar and welcome presence in all seven schools and at school events.

Recchiuti cared deeply about the quality of education that every student received and he spent his life serving others.

Below are details on the awardees, courtesy of the School District of Haverford Township:

Nora Healey and Lily Walker

Nora and Lily are founding members of the Haverford Middle School Best Buddies Club. They were part of a core group of students who helped found the program when they were in 6th grade.

Nora and Lily are both incredibly busy students but have found the time to be involved in organizing club activities, supporting their friends both in and out of school and including their friends with intellectual and developmental disabilities in their world.

Nora and Lily are wonderful people who care deeply about their friends and community.

Nhi Nguyen and Tommy Barnes

As co-leaders of the Haverford High School “No Place for Hate” club both Nhi and Tommy have worked tirelessly to promote tolerance, kindness and acceptance.

From hosting Fishbowl conversations about mental health awareness, the importance of ally ship and the dangers of labels and stereotypes to creating, promoting and executing kindness campaigns, they are the type of human beings who foster inclusivity throughout the building.

June Park

June along with a few friends started the Haverford High School Young Democrats. Three years later they are 80 strong. One of their important initiatives is increasing involvement in the voting process. Not only has June volunteered as a poll worker for the last several years, she also recruits and trains other students to volunteer.

June and the HHS Young Democrats have worked with the HHS Future Republicans to successfully register hundreds of students to vote through their registration efforts. Last year the clubs held their first voter registration drive and successfully registered over 100 seniors. Using what they learned last year, June and other club members worked hard to make improvements for this year’s drive by publicizing it through flyers, posters and a creative social media campaign.

June presented at a faculty meeting to make sure faculty and staff were aware of the voter registration drive and to ask faculty members to nominate senior leaders to represent the drive. June organized and trained this team of seniors and led a senior voter registration assembly. After the assembly, June and the senior team visited homerooms to encourage students to register. Through her efforts the voter registration team registered 272 students (86.62% of eligible seniors). She exemplified hard work, perseverance and civic engagement.