Submitted by Community Youth Services
The mission behind the work of everyone at Community Youth Services shines through in the life of Miracle Negron. Miracle, who is 18, personifies how the variety of programs available at CYS creates a safety net that can catch youth in trouble and turn their lives around in positive ways.
Miracle will be honored Friday, May 16, with CYS’s top annual honor, the 2014 CYS Youth Achiever of the Year, which comes with a $1,000 stipend she plans to use toward her education. Miracle, who over the last five years has benefited from six CYS programs, plans to get her master’s degree in cybersecurity and hopes to work for the CIA someday. She also plans to be a foster parent, to help youth struggling as she once did.
The event honoring Miracle and a dozen other CYS participants receiving awards is free and open to the public. It is set for 3:30 p.m. at The Olympia Center, 222 Columbia Street NW, downtown Olympia. “This is the perfect feel-good event to start your weekend,” said CYS Development Coordinator Barbara Wakefield. “We hope that all those curious about the incredible work done here will come and see the smiles on the faces of these hard-working young people.”
In addition to the youth, CYS will continue its annual tradition of honoring a Volunteer of the Year and a Youth Advocate of the Year. The Volunteers of the Year are Bob and Mary Wildenhaus, longtime donors and part of the CYS Juvenile Diversion Program. The Youth Advocate of the Year is Andrea Cobb of New Market Vocational Skills Center in Tumwater.
Sponsors of the awards include employees of the Port of Olympia and Zonta of South Puget Sound.
