Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Miami Herald - May 4, 2005
Evan S. Benn, ebenn@herald.com
Among them, they speak half a dozen languages, have spent more than 13,000 hours volunteering and have aced almost every honors and advanced-placement class their schools offer.
To say the least, Broward County's 2005 winners of The Herald-El Nuevo Herald Silver Knight Awards are an impressive bunch.
Tuesday night, the 15 high school seniors beamed, blushed and bawled as they accepted their statuettes at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
Another 45 students were awarded honorable mentions.
"I'm so grateful that someone could recognize the struggles I've been through," a breathless Amanda Gonzalez said, after winning the drama award. "I'm so thankful."
Gonzalez, whose father died of AIDS in 1992, has made it her mission to raise money for HIV and AIDS research and to raise awareness among those around her.
She collected hundreds of dollars in the past year, organizing charity talent shows and fundraising drives through Flanagan High's drama club.
But her greatest sense of accomplishment came after she passed out red ribbons and lollipops that had facts about HIV/AIDS attached to their stems.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Walking down the hall and seeing her peers wearing their ribbons and exchanging facts, Gonzalez said she knew she had made a difference.
Gonzalez, who also volunteers at His House Children's Home in Opa-locka, wrote in her Silver Knight application that she owes her drive to the people who supported her through the struggles of growing up in a single-parent home.
"I don't live in a house with a picket fence, and I didn't get a car for my 17th birthday, and perhaps I won't even get this much-needed scholarship," Gonzalez wrote.
"But it's OK because I have a family that loves me. . . . I approach every day with my eyes wide open and a smile on my face because I know that at the end of every tunnel, there is a light."
Other award categories included mathematics, new media, journalism, speech, music, business, science, art, English, foreign language, social science, vocational technical, athletics and general scholarship.
Alana Edun, a Stranahan High student, aspiring doctor and a Silver Knight in social science, already has dedicated herself to helping others.
Two years ago, when the Pembroke Pines teen was working at a mall ice-cream shop, she noticed that food vendors around her threw away leftover food at the end of the day.
Edun arranged to have the managers give her the food instead of tossing it, and she started taking it to Starting Over Inc., a Fort Lauderdale homeless shelter.
Between her job, community-service projects and leading her school's mentoring program for mentally and physically challenged kids, Edun managed to rank in the top 4 percent of her class.
And she had a heavy course load: She took 10 AP classes at her school and an anatomy and physiology class at Broward Community College.
Juggling responsibilities and extracurriculars is what mades the Silver Knights stand out among their peers, said Donna Sasser, vice president and business manager at The Herald in Broward.
"They care about the needs of others and find creative ways to help, no matter how jampacked their schedules are with other activities," Sasser said while hosting Tuesday's ceremony.
Sasser presented a special tribute to the parents of Rebecca Kirtman, who died in a car accident in August 2003.
POSTHUMOUS TRIBUTE
Kirtman, who would have been a senior this year at Nova High, started a program to provide formalwear for kids who could not otherwise afford it.
The charity, now known as Becca's Closet, continues today.
The Silver Knights program was created in 1959 by John S. Knight, the late publisher of The Miami Herald. It was expanded to Broward in 1984.
Each winner received a medallion to wear at graduation, a Silver Knight statuette, $1,500 and a round-trip plane ticket to any destination in the United States or Central America from American Airlines. Students who received honorable mentions won $500 and an engraved plaque.
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