www.herndonfriends.org

(Updated for 2009/2010) year)
Inspired by a successful model developed by the Sandy Springs Meeting in Maryland, the Northern Virginia Student Peace Award is in its fifth year, and the second under its current format. This year, sixteen Fairfax County high schools were invited to select a student who has made a substantial contribution to peacemaking and/or conflict resolution; eleven schools picked winners who will be honored at a reception on March 7. The selected students will each receive $100.

The participating schools are Centreville, Fairfax, Herndon, Lake Braddock, Lee, Quander Road, Langley, Madison, McLean, Mountain View, Robinson, South Lakes, South County, Thomas Jefferson, West Springfield, and Woodson. We notified the students immediately so that they could mention this honor on their applications for college.

Eleven organizations are serving as sponsors this year:

• Accotink Unitarian-Universalist Church
• Alexandria Friends Meeting
• Great Falls Baha’I Community
• Fairfax Partnership for Youth
• First Church of Christ, Scientist, Fairfax, VA
• Herndon Friends Meeting
• Langley Hill Friends Meeting
• Northern Virginia Mennonite Church
• St. John Neumann Catholic Church
• Temple Rodef Shalom
• United Christian Parish of Reston

After obtaining permission from their parents, we spoke to each of the students to learn more about their activities so that we can write news releases. The students will be presented with a certificate at their schools' end of year awards ceremony.

Each of the sponsoring organizations is asked to contribute $150. In future years we hope more groups will join us so that we can include more area schools. Anyone interested in becoming a sponsor may contact Margaret Fisher 703.968.2971. Enthusiastic people are also needed to help with the organizational aspects of the project, such as serving as representatives to the schools.

The attachments below contain some of the details of how the awards are administered.