Wakefield Teen Awarded Service Above Self Award

Rotary District 7930 has named Alexander Golding of Wakefield as the recipient of the 2016 Service Above Self Award, a $10,000. scholarship to help him pursue higher education. Committee Chair Peggy Pedro, explained "Each candidate was very highly qualified and all represented their communities with distinction. Alex's community involvement and commitment to others less fortunate than himself aligned him with the spirit of the scholarship. Alex has been involved in community service activities since his childhood. Alex traces his community involvement back to a day when his parents pushed him in a stroller as a one year old while they volunteered to clean up a bike path. We applaud Alex's family for instilling in him a lifelong commitment to Service Above Self in the communities in which he has lived."

Alex's personal motto is "Tikkun Olam" which means "Repair the World". For the past three years, Alex has volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity work site in Raleigh, North Carolina. Locally, Alex has served as a Teen Leader for three years improving different aspects of local communities. This past year, he worked at a homeless shelter in Lynn beautifying the area around the shelter. Alex has also volunteered at soup kitchens, played games with developmentally disabled adults, painted walls at a number of underprivileged schools, and read to children in an ESL program. All of these activities validate Alex's belief that "repairing the world by starting with the least fortunate around us makes the biggest difference and inspires others to go on and create a better global community for everyone".