Whiz Kid: Community Service Speaks Volumes for Miller Place Senior

Name: Kiersten Simon - Age 16

School: - Senior

Accomplishments: Kiersten spent her summer vacation doing what she loves to do: community service.  In Port Jefferson, she voluneers at Save-A-Pet, doing the morning work to take care of the cats.  She cleans their cages, feeds and plays with them.  At Christ Church, she works in the soup kitchen serving meals and cleaning up. 

Simon is the event coordinator on the weekends for Last Chance Animal Rescue, through Pet Smart, where dogs wait to be adopted.  She is a junior volunteer at Mather Hospital, running specimens to the lab and working the front desk. In Sound Beach, she volunteers at the food pantry, organizing the food closets and helping the needy clients who come in.  In Rocky Point, Kiersten delivers meals through the Meals on Wheels program through . She separates live oysters from dead ones that are caught in traps and returns them into the Long Island Sound at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai through the Town of Brookhaven's Shellfish Restoration Program. 

At Miller Place High School, Kiersten has been on the honor roll for three years and is a member of the service club.  She was the stage manager for the drama department's productions of Fiddler on the Roof and Sweeney Todd. She has also been a member of both the chorus and vocal jazz groups and the manager of both the Junior Varsity and Varsity wrestling teams.

Outside of school, Kiersten has been doing tap and jazz dance since the third grade.  She has been a Girl Scout for the past 11 years and is currently working on her Gold Award project. The senior has been employed at Sunset Harbor Marina and McNulty's Ice Cream Parlor. Her career goal is to become a speech pathologist.