Two Stafford Technical Center students, Erika Stocker of Wallingford, and Ashley Barnes of Rutland, recently won the Governor’s Award for Community Service in the youth division. Both girls are seniors in the Public Safety Services Program and are members of the Students Against Destructive Decisions Chapter at Stafford Technical Center. The awards are granted through the Vermont Commission on National and Community Service, a bipartisan committee of 15 persons appointed by the governor. Both Ashley and Erika have also been nominated for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award at the gold level.
Ashley Barnes has been an active member of the Rutland City Police Cadets and has done hundreds of hours of assisting with traffic and crowd control, parades, training and other events over a 2 and a half year period. Ashley has assisted Detective Ray LaMoria of the Rutland City Police in teaching the RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) Program to all sorts of people, from elementary school students, to high school students, to college students, and to special populations. Ashley plans on becoming a trainer in this program.
Both Ashley and Erika are both active members of the Stafford Technical Center SADD Chapter, and have donated hundreds of hours in training, and in projects designed to reduce the incidence of underage drinking, promote positive personal behaviors, provide positive role models, and to reduce other negative behaviors such as drug usage, dating violence, bullying, etc. They have presented on topics such as “Improper Cell Phone Use”, “Sexting”, and “Teen Dating Violence” at a number of schools and the state-wide Governor’s Youth Leadership Conference. They have been part of a number of highway safety projects, including the “Slow Down, Stick Around” Program which partnered community members and area libraries in an attempt to increase awareness of the dangers of speeding in cars.
Erika has been a very involved member of the Wallingford Fire Department, where she has done every task possible for a junior firefighter for the last five years. She has reported to car crashes, fire scenes, fundraisers, community benefit programs, and training. Her dedication is such that she has on more than one occasion been at a fire scene so late into the night that she came directly to school from the fire scene.