Valley youth honored

Samuel Allred of Wasilla, an eighth-grader at Raven Correspondence School, and Reese Qualls of Palmer, an eighth-grader at Palmer Junior Middle School will be presented with engraved medallions Saturday in Anchorage to recognize their selection as two of Alaska’s top youth volunteers for 2013 in the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program.

Allred, a State Honoree who will be presented with a silver medallion, is being honored for making travel-size pillows and distributing them to children’s hospitals across the country to provide comfort to sick kids. For more information on Allred and his volunteering, visit http://bit.ly/15wktiN.

As a State Honoree, he also will receive $1,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where he will join 101 other top honorees from across the country for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America’s top youth volunteers for 2013 at that time.

Qualls, a Distinguished Finalist who will be presented with a bronze medallion, is being honored for developing a literacy program called “Moose Books” that provides free books to students in need through a local bookstore’s used book credit program. For more information on Qualls and his volunteering, visit http://bit.ly/WHoI9K.