Congratulations to our Community Service Award Recipients for 2025

We are pleased that this year we are able to award four Community Service Awards of $500 to some very deserving students. These four have gone above and beyond in volunteer service in their communities.

Pat Moschenross (CSA committee member), Eden Wu, Zeyus Spenta, and CSA committee members Diane Kikkert, Barbara Conrad, Ros LeBlanc

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Awards team of Barbara, Diane and Pat presented to Zev Baum Singer at his school, where he was organizing a fundraiser for cancer research.

Zev Baum Singer – King David High School, Vancouver

Zev wrote an excellent essay, but as a summary of his many volunteer activities, his teacher’s reference letter does such a good job that I will also use brief excerpts from it. He says: Zev is an exceptional leader, serving on the Student Leadership Council, where he plays a key role in fostering student engagement. He has also founded and moderated the Current Events Club and an accompanying speaker series. He volunteers weekly at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital, and serves as a docent at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

This year he participated in a Jewish-Muslim interfaith program that organizes volunteer events in the downtown east side to distribute food and build connections between families of both faiths.

Following his best friend’s diagnosis with cancer, he has been a driving force behind an annual cancer research basketball tournament fundraiser benefiting both his school and the oncology centre at BC Children’s Hospital, demonstrating his passion for meaningful causes. His ability to rally others in support of important initiatives speaks to his leadership, organizational skills and unwavering determination.

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Jenna Dong also had a schedule conflict the day of the presentation.

Jenna Dong – Gladstone Secondary School, Vancouver

Here is a student who embodies excellence in everything she does, including exceptional levels of leadership within her school and the school district. She started the Good Guys group, a chapter of a larger student organization that fundraises and provides hygiene kits and meals for the homeless of the downtown east side. She coordinates a team of 90 volunteers in preparing and distributing over 400 sandwich meals each month. She raised $10,000 in community donations by partnering with local bakeries and organizing fundraisers. Her teacher says that her leadership has led to countless initiatives within the school and has led the group to be one of the most active and engaged groups in the community.

She also co-founded Camp Catalyst, a series of free day camps for underprivileged girls, to address barriers to females engaging with STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. For this she secured  $10,000 in grant funding, and further funding to support over 30 low-income elementary students in her area.

To raise environmental awareness, she became involved with the Vancouver School Board Sustainability Connection in Grade 8. Now co-chair, she has built a team of 30 students across the district’s 18 schools, to expand the outreach program and initiate workshops to over 700 elementary students and mentorship sessions to support youth in developing action projects.

As an aspiring physician, Jenna looks forward to implementing her values of inclusion and collaboration in championing equality in healthcare.

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Zeyus Spenta – Handsworth Secondary School, North Vancouver

In his essay, Zeyus said: From planting trees to championing my city’s biodiversity project as an Environmental Steward & Wildlife Ambassador, community service has been my North Star.

He is the Student Council Co-President, leading many campaigns and activities including fundraisers to raise thousands of dollars for organizations like the Terry Fox foundation. As well, as Co-President of his school district’s Student Leadership Council, he leads 100 members in providing perspective on education issues and represents 16,000 students with the district’s executive team. He championed diversity, equity and inclusion on the district’s Anti-Racism Focus Group. As an organizer of the school district’s Sustainability Forum, he helped develop events that inspire thousands of students to make eco-friendly choices.

He supports community resilience and provides youth perspective as the North Vancouver City Library Board’s Student Advisory Trustee, the youngest member of the City of North Vancouver’s Social Planning Advisory Community, and secretary of the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation Youth Advisory Committee.

Through the local library’s grant program, he developed a successful workshop series about STEM and sustainability that has become a model for a current coding club at the library. In 2024 he received the City of North Vancouver’s Give Back Award, recognizing his positive contributions to the community on a voluntary basis, and his hundreds of hours of volunteer service.

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Eden Wu – Steveston-London Secondary School, Richmond

Eden is active in her school and in the wider community to cultivate care, connection and compassion through acts of positivity and kindness. In 2021 she founded a community initiative, Project PacKits, with the mission to combat poverty by distributing care packages every four months to date. She has partnered with Helping Families in Need Society, St. Alban’s Anglican Church and Richmond Modular RainCity Housing to distribute over 250 care packages to the underprivileged: single parents, the homeless and immigrant families across the Lower Mainland. This project has been recognized by the Richmond News, which has helped to raise over $1,500 in grants and awards, as well as doubling the number of team executives, whom she mentors.

In a leadership role in her school she plans events and initiatives aimed at raising awareness of and reducing stigmas associated with mental health issues. She is an active member of the school’s ECO team, working collaboratively to improve the environment and promote awareness.

Eden has received the Richmond Outstanding Community Youth Award and the Violet Richardson Award, both of which recognize youth who make the community and world a better place. She has also received the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award.

[Eden’s brother, Caleb, received an award from us in 2022 for an innovative project in connection with BC Children’s Hospital. So we see that community service runs in families!]