Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle presents a Distinguished Student of Service certificate to LAHS junior Samuel Carmer, on behalf of the Rotary Club of Los Alamos as his parents Carol Haertling and Craig Carmer share the moment with LAHS teacher Jonathan Frost, May 7, at Cottonwood on the Greens. Photo by Linda Hull
By VINCENT CHIRAVALLE
Rotary Club of Los Alamos
The motto of Rotary is Service Above Self. To support this motto in each academic year, the Rotary Club of Los Alamos honors “Distinguished Students of Service” in their junior year of high school.
Students are first nominated by their teachers who are asked to select those who:
- Have given positive contributions to their high school and/or in the community;
- Have a good attitude toward learning;
- Are good citizens, are respectful of their peers and teachiss; and
- Have good grades, attendance and classroom participation.
The Club then selects students based on demonstrated spirit of service and exemplification of the Rotary 4 Way Test:
- Is it the truth?
- Is it fair to all concerned?
- Will it build good will and better friendships?
- Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
May 7 the Rotary Club of Los Alamos presented Samuel Carmer, a Los Alamos High School junior with a Distinguished Student of Service award. Samuel is indeed one who has made service part of his life and he is a very well-rounded student. Samuel is the vice president of the Eco Club, and a member of the Spanish Club, and he is a student athlete who has played on the varsity basketball team since his freshman year. Samuel attended the Green Schools Conference, a nationwide conference of climate activists, representing the Eco Club. Samuel is excited to go to Washington, D.C. this June with Citizens Climate Lobby. He is going to lobby Senators and Representatives from New Mexico about ways we can reduce our carbon emissions at a federal level. Samuel and other Eco Club members are looking to raise funds for the hotel and traveling. They have a GoFundMe set up for donations. Samuel also has a job working as a cashier at the Los Alamos Cooperative Market. In addition to these activities Samuel volunteers with the Los Alamos Animal Shelter, walking and caring for dogs. He is a student liaison representing his junior class on issues related to school district policy.
In his essay Samuel shared with the Club one of the challenges facing today’s youth; namely climate change and loss of ecological systems in our community. Samuel described how in his role as vice president of the Eco Club he helped present a proposed resolution to the school board asking them to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution in the district.
The Eco Club is currently working with the school board and administrators to revise this resolution and make it specific to the local schools. Samuel described the proposed school board resolution as follows, “We want to get rid of diesel buses and replace them with EV buses, because diesel is unhealthy for students, drivers, and our town’s environment. In order to spread awareness about our school board resolution we showed a movie March 15 at SALA, and I posted flyers around town at local businesses and in the local newspapers, and conducted surveys to classmates and community members to solicit their opinions. I believe that climate change is one of the most pressing issues for today’s youth and we need to address it sooner rather than later”
The Rotary Club of Los Alamos feels that this is a very worthy effort and commends Samuel for his service to the youth in Los Alamos.
When receiving the award Samuel was joined by his mother Carol Haertling, his father Craig Carmer, and LAHS teacher Jonathan Frost, who nominated him for the award.
