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Grand Forks teen named North Dakota Youth of the Year

  • Published
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --   Jessica Weber, daughter of Lt. Col. James and Denise Weber, is the new North Dakota Youth of the Year for 2004. She earned the honor during the Boys and Girls Club of America state competition March 27 at Minot AFB, N.D. Youth from four Boys and Girls Clubs in the state entered the competition.

The youth completed an extensive youth of the year nomination form, and faced the challenges of a public speaking opportunity and an interview with three judges.

In addition to the state honors, Jessica, named the Grand Forks AFB Youth of the Year in February, will represent the base during the sixth annual Air Force Youth of the Year Program June 21 to 25 in Washington, D.C., and attend the Air Force Youth of the Year awards ceremony June 23 at the Pentagon.

"I feel extremely honored and maybe a little embarrassed by all the attention," Jessica said.

Jessica, a senior at Grand Forks Central High School with a cumulative 4.0 grade point average, is rated eighth overall among 245 students in her class. She has been a consistent youth center volunteer for many events, is a certified youth sports coach, and is considered a positive role model for youth and her peers.

"I never really thought about the volunteering I do with the base youth center as 'work,'" she said. "I have fun doing it and enjoy working with the kids on many projects. "To be recognized with such an honor is almost unbelievable and totally unexpected."

"You cannot imagine how proud we are," said her father, Colonel Weber. "Frankly, until the youth and teen coordinators pointed out all the things Jessica had done for the youth programs, even we did not know the magnitude of what she was into.

"She has always enjoyed heading off to the youth center and never came back to brag about what she'd done," added the colonel. "So unless it was a publicized activity, like the play put on by the Missoula Children's Theater, we only knew she was off for another evening working at Liberty Square, or an afternoon coaching kids soccer. The competition itself was incredibly tough, and we were extremely proud that she just won for the base."

Jessica's mother said her daughter has been a part of youth activities all of her life and wanted to be a volunteer early on.

"She took her first opportunity to volunteer when McGuire AFB (N.J.) youth services sponsored the Special Olympics when she was in junior high school," Mrs. Weber said. "After that, whether it was at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, or here at Grand Forks, she found her enjoyment in volunteering."

"To me, volunteering is fun and I enjoy it tremendously," Jessica said. "You can't imagine how much I look forward to seeing our base kids each week, and how much I like working with the youth and teen coordinators. They are really great supporters of the volunteers, and give me such encouragement that I feel more like part of a team than just a teenager volunteering for the base."

Dawn Thompson, 319th Services Squadron assistant director for yourth programs, said Jessica is the ideal candidate to represent the base and Air Mobility Command at the national level.

"She's an amazing young lady," said Ms. Thompson. "We are all so very proud of her."