BIRMINGHAM — Birmingham and Gurley students earn $1,000 awards, engraved medallions and trip to nation’s capital Honors also bestowed on other top youth volunteers in Alabama. Zachary Woolley, 16, of Birmingham and Lindsey Jones, 10, of Gurley today were named Alabama’s top two youth volunteers for 2007 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 12th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

Zachary was nominated by Oak Mountain High School in Birmingham, and Lindsey was nominated by Central School in Huntsville. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees – one middle level and one high school youth – from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America’s top youth volunteers for 2007 at that time.

Zachary, a sophomore at Oak Mountain High School, can’t walk, get dressed or do his schoolwork without assistance because he has cerebral palsy, yet he has helped raise more than $10,000 to find a cure and to purchase essential equipment for a little girl in Poland who also has the disease. “My parents have always taught me that I can be mad and a jerk, or I can really like life and help others understand disabilities,” he said. So, since he was 3 years old, Zachary has helped educate others about cerebral palsy as a spokesperson for United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) and a champion for the Children’s Miracle Network.

Recently, he and his father teamed up to produce and sell a special Christmas ornament that depicts Zachary receiving a gift from Santa Claus, to benefit UCP. While working on the project, Zachary discovered that the artist commissioned to create the ornament in Poland had a daughter with cerebral palsy. Zachary joined with fellow student government officers at his school to sponsor an event that raised enough money to purchase both a wheelchair and bathing chair for the little girl. The experience made Zachary feel very thankful. “I may be in a wheelchair, but I have a good home and family,” said Zachary. “We have so much.”

Lindsey, a fifth-grader at Central School in Huntsville, helped a local American Cancer Society chapter surpass its $313,000 Relay for Life fund-raising goal by serving as the event’s 2006-07 Honorary Youth Chair. Lindsey got involved because she wanted to “give back a portion of what had been done for me” while she battled a rare form of cancer at age 3 that left her blind. “I wanted to give people hope that they could do it, and that one day cancer would be eliminated,” she said.

As Youth Chair of the Relay for Life, Lindsey appeared in advertisements, gave interviews to the news media, participated in numerous civic and charitable events, spoke and sang at local colleges about the importance of cancer research, and had her picture displayed on the hood of a racecar during a special day held in her honor at the racetrack. The Relay for Life ended up drawing more than 25,000 people and raising $331,000. In addition, Lindsey collected more than $3,000 directly through her own Web site. “I have learned that nothing, including blindness, should stop you from doing what you want to do and being what you want to be,” Lindsey said. “Cancer took away my eyesight, but not my vision for the future.”

In addition, the program judges recognized four other Alabama students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion:

Paris Davis, 15, of Irondale, a freshman at Shade’s Valley High School, raised $7,000 to open an Internet Café that has given kids in her small community a safe and convenient place to access computers and socialize. Paris found a location, sought sponsors, found a contractor to renovate an old church building, and recruited others to join her as volunteer staff members at the café.

Shannon Edsall, 16, of Alabaster, a sophomore at Thompson High School, conducted environmental-education workshops for more than 1,000 children and 100 adults across Alabama. During her training sessions, Shannon uses outdoor “teaching” trails along with interactive electronic “quiz boxes” she built by hand to test the environmental IQs of her students.

Joy Lampkin, 17, of Homewood, a student at Homewood High School, started a summer cheerleading camp for girls who are terminally ill or have a terminally ill sibling. In 2003, Joy persuaded the Children’s Harbor Care Center, where she volunteered, to finance the two-day camp to help the 50 girls who participate each summer boost their self-confidence, determination and enthusiasm for life.

Gregory Stanhope, 15, of Florence, a sophomore at Florence High School, turned a storage closet at a local high school into a multi-sensory room filled with lights, sounds and activities designed to calm autistic and other special-education students when they get agitated. Gregory solicited money and materials to create the room, and recruited fellow students to complete the conversion.

“People as caring and committed as these young students are critical to the future of our neighborhoods, our cities and our nation,” said Arthur Ryan, chairman and CEO of Prudential. “By recognizing these honorees, we hope to encourage other young people – our future leaders – and all Americans to think more about the value and importance of volunteering in their communities.”

“NASSP is pleased to once again join Prudential in recognizing these young people for their amazing accomplishments,” remarked Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “This year’s honorees are proof that the youth of today are conscientious and capable of performing selfless acts of kindness in their local communities, on a national scale and at the global level.”

All public and private middle level and high schools in the country, as well as all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and Volunteer Centers, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award this past November. More than 7,500 Local Honorees were then reviewed by state-level judges, who selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth.

While in Washington, D.C., the 102 State Honorees will tour the capital’s landmarks, attend a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill. In addition, 10 of them – five middle level and five high school students – will be named National Honorees on May 7 by a prestigious national selection committee. These honorees will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies, and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit, charitable organizations of their choice.

Serving on the national selection committee will be U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota; Arthur Ryan of Prudential; actor Richard Dreyfuss; Alma Powell, chair of America’s Promise – The Alliance for Youth; Robert Goodwin, president and CEO of the Points of Light Foundation; Amy B. Cohen, director of Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National and Community Service; Kathy Cloninger, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA; Donald T. Floyd Jr., president and CEO of National 4-H Council; Michael Cohen, president and CEO of Achieve, Inc.; Kathryn Forbes, national chair of volunteers, American Red Cross; Joe Militello, president of NASSP; and two 2006 Prudential Spirit of Community National Honorees: Ajay Mangal of Pascagoula, Miss., and Geneva Johnson of the Bronx, N.Y.

In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program will be distributing President’s Volunteer Service Awards to more than 4,150 of its Local Honorees this year on behalf of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represent the United States’ largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service. The program is part of a broad youth-service initiative by Prudential that includes a youth leadership training program administered by the Points of Light Foundation; a free booklet of volunteer ideas for young people offered through the Federal

Citizen Information Center; and a Web site featuring profiles of outstanding youth volunteers, volunteer tips and project ideas for students, an electronic newspaper on youth volunteerism, and more (www.prudential.com/spirit). The Spirit of Community Awards program also is conducted by Prudential subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and is being introduced this year in Ireland.

For information on all of this year’s Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit www.prudential.com/spirit or www.principals.org/prudential.

The National Association of Secondary School Principals — the preeminent organization and the national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals and aspiring school leaders — provides its members with the professional resources to serve as visionary leaders. NASSP promotes the intellectual growth, academic achievement, character development, leadership development, and physical well-being of youth through its programs and student leadership services. NASSP sponsors the National Honor Society™, the National Junior Honor Society™ and the National Association of Student Councils™. For more information on NASSP, NHS, NJHS or NASC, visit www.principals.org.

Prudential Financial companies serve individual and institutional customers worldwide and include The Prudential Insurance Company of America, one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. These companies offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, mutual funds, annuities, pension and retirement-related services and administration, asset management, securities brokerage, banking and trust services, real estate brokerage franchises and relocation services. For more information, visit www.prudential.com.