Youth Volunteer Award

Editor’s note: This is the fourth article in a series of five profiling winners of the Celebration of Giving awards presented annually by Shawano Area Community Foundation Inc. for outstanding volunteerism. The winners will be honored at a gala April 11 at the Gathering.

Emma Schmidt inherited a passion for volunteerism from her mother, and the passion has been burning ever since.

The high school senior has worked at a food pantry, taught Sunday school at her church, performed violin for nursing home residents, packed Christmas gifts for needy children, and introduced young students to the business world.

And that does not even include her many activities at Shawano Community High School.

The high-energy, high-impact young woman from Shawano is being recognized for her community service efforts with the 2017 Youth Volunteer Award from the Shawano Area Community Foundation.

“I just really feel honored,” she said.

The daughter of Tyler and Heather Schmidt will join four other honorees April 11 at the foundation’s Celebration of Giving gala, which recognizes individuals or groups that have exhibited a spirit of volunteerism in the Shawano area. Each honoree receives a $1,000 donation to be directed to a nonprofit organization of their choosing.

Schmidt will be donating her $1,000 award to the children’s ministries at Hope Community Church in Shawano.

Sandy Ebbinger, district director of Junior Achievement of Wisconsin, nominated Schmidt for the foundation award, saying that Schmidt has shown boundless energy for worthwhile causes. Not only has the award winner worked with children and adults alike, Ebbinger said, she has asserted herself both in Shawano and beyond.

“She’s really very well-rounded,” Ebbinger said. “It tells me that she’s motivated to make a difference.”

Schmidt, 18, got her first exposure to volunteer service at Hope Community Church, where her mother taught Sunday school. As a young child, Schmidt accompanied her mother and eventually started offering assistance.

By the time she reached her teens, Schmidt was volunteering to care for babies in the church’s nursery.

As the second-oldest of five children at home, Schmidt has devoted much time to getting to know her younger siblings and offering them a helping hand whenever possible. When she became active in Junior Achievement, she found another way to help children, volunteering to introduce the business-based program to younger students.

Assisting those younger than her is a special interest that runs deep.

“I feel like I have a calling toward kids,” she said.

As a student at Shawano Community High School, Schmidt has been inducted into the National Honor Society and has taken her violin talents to the Tri-M Music Honor Society. She also has served on the Student Council, the Science Society and the Spanish Club.

Outside of school, she has volunteered at the Shawano Area Food Pantry and Resource Center while also working in the relief efforts of the organizations known as Feed My Starving Children and Operation Christmas Child.

Ebbinger said she was met many gifted young men and women through Junior Achievement. When she was preparing Schmidt’s nomination for the community foundation award, she was struck by the depth and diversity of Schmidt’s civic activism.

“I was just really impressed,” she said.

After high school graduation this spring, Schmidt plans to enroll at Carroll University in Waukesha and study physical therapy.

Although she recognizes that attending college will leave her little free time, she hopes to continue community service volunteering as much as possible.

“I just love the feeling of being able to help out people,” she said. “I love being helpful.”