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The Power of Giving
Teen volunteers make a difference for themselves,and others By Laurie Dove
For Sarah Swagart, it wasn't an ideal childhood.
Swagart was molested at an early age, battled her own drug addictions and finally, at 14, was hospitalized for a serious suicide attempt. When she returned to school, Swagart felt "different" and alone. However, a community crack-down on skate boarders -- none of whom Swagart knew -- soon caught her attention. These were kids like her, she thought -- marginalized, different, without a voice.
But not for long.
Swagart took up the skate boarding teens' fight with city hall, working to change their image -- and hers -- ultimately helping to inspire and create the largest skateboard park in the Pacific Northwest.
In doing so, Swagart joined the growing number of teenagers volunteering their time to serve others, says Steve Culbertson, president and chief executive officer of Youth Service America, a national organization founded in 1986.
Youth Service America was formed in response to a renewed service movement that swept the nation during the mid-1980s. The organization's goal is to make service a common experience for every young person in America.
Today more youth than ever before are volunteering their time to make a difference in their communities, and about one-third of the nation's schools are incorporating service experiences into their classrooms.
"Right now, volunteer work is worth about $250 billion to our society," Culbertson says. "If we suddenly shut that off, our country would collapse in about three seconds."
The benefits of volunteering are as strong for teens as they are for our nation. The more involved a youth is in service activities, the less likely he or she will be to have negative behavior as a teen. There are correlations between increased volunteer work and lower rates of drug abuse, teen pregnancy and other harmful behaviors, Culbertson says.