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Youths make difference on State Farm board
By Phyllis Coulter
pcoulter@pantagraph.com
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BLOOMINGTON — When Jessica Moran recalled how her senior year of high school was smashed by Hurricane Katrina, it still brought tears to her eyes, but she swallowed them and talked about how she plans to help her former neighbors in Mississippi.

Cedric Riley, 18, got off to a shaky start in life, living in foster homes for nine years with the odds stacked against him as a black child in a low-income community. Now he is a motivational speaker and Ohio State University student looking for ways to help more young children get an education for success.

Parita Patel, 18, who lives north of Chicago, reflected on her visit last year to tsunami-damaged Thailand, where she was one of 23 students who helped the country form a new disaster preparedness plan.

They are three of 45 of America’s best and brightest 17- to 20-year-olds who make up the State Farm Youth Advisory Board, a group charged with deciding how to use $5 million this year to make the world a better place. The organization met last week at State Farm Insurance Cos. corporate headquarters in Bloomington to celebrate its first birthday.

The board, composed of young Americans and Canadians chosen from a pool of applicants for outstanding community involvement, studies various student-led projects and awards funding to the most promising.

“I’m three times older than you and haven’t come close to what you’ve done in your lives,” State Farm Vice President Barbara Cowden told the students Friday.

“It’s amazing the passion these young adults have. These kids are out to save the world,” she said.

“You should be so proud of the impact you’ve had in Canada and the United States on the lives of people you might never meet,” she told them.

In its inaugural year, the 30-member board allocated $3.1 million to projects. The remainder of that year’s $5 million — donated by State Farm — went to support State Farm’s Gulf Coast Walkabout, which helped young people improve their communities recovering from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

Recipients of funds from the first board session included: Hands On Miami, which implemented a community disaster preparedness program; Child and Youth Friendly Canada, a peer-focused safe-driving program for teens; the Chicago Urban League’s after-school financial literacy program; and Jefferson County schools in Kentucky.

Each year, the board will focus on the same four categories: disaster preparedness, financial education, closing the achievement gap and driver safety.

“I’m so impressed that the youth is really in charge — that they have so much faith us,” said Patel, 18, who attends Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She said she has been involved in other youth boards where adults still really run things.

That’s a source of pride for Patrick McAlister, 19, a member of the first board. He was active when the youths themselves set up the structure of the board last year, and he is among some members chosen to serve two-year terms.

It was a bittersweet event as 15 of the first members retired last week, said Kathy Payne, who leads the Youth Advisory Board project for State Farm.

“It’s emotional as some of these wonderful young people leave us,” she said.

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Reader comments on this story - 1 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Pride in Youth wrote on Jul 1, 2007 9:38 AM:

" What a wonderful idea! It is so inspiring to hear of these wonderful young people that truly care about others, as well as developing themselves to be outstanding individuals in their communities. I applaud them! What is a little surprising, and kind of sad, is the fact that mine is the only comment on the positng board about these impressive youths and this outstanding opportunity for them to make a difference. It seems that many would rather complain and make negative comments about fairly minor things happening in our community (such as the smoking ban, the areana, etc.) Our youth are our future and we should do everything we can to encourage, motivate and praise them. "
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