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"Any one person can help and make a difference."

2/22/2018

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Twelve-year-old Harmonie Frederick’s volunteer philosophy is simple: Any one person can help and make a difference. It’s a philosophy she lives by whether it’s spending time with seniors at a nursing home or donating $5 from her tooth fairy stash to a victim of a house fire. For her commitment to service to others, Frederick is an inductee into the 2018 Sodexo Performance Zone Hall of Fame.
Frederick received $500, which she donated to the LAW program (Leadership Academy at Wright), where she is a sixth grader. A poster of a smiling Frederick will be hung in more than 700 middle schools across the country where Sodexo provides meals services. Performance Zone gives much deserved recognition to the students and groups who are benefiting their schools and communities by exhibiting outstanding acts of service, academics and athletics, while at the same time seeking to inspire others to follow their lead. Each year, 10 students are selected for the honor.
“We are extremely proud of Harmonie’s generous spirit of giving. The $500 donation will be used to generate fundraising activities to support Pawmetto Lifeline, which provides medical services to pets rescued in our community,” said E.L. Wright Middle Principal Malinda Taylor. “Our LAW students eagerly look forward to participating in this community service project each year.”
This latest award is just the most recent recognition for this young, dedicated community servant. When she was a fifth grader at Polo Road Elementary School, Frederick was named one of America's Top 10 Youth Volunteers of 2017 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. That same year, Frederick was one of two students in South Carolina named top youth volunteers.
Frederick’s volunteer activities include selling lemonade to raise money and awareness to fight cancer, conducting a coat drive to keep those less fortunate warm in the winter, and volunteering at a local nursing home. After her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and her father (now deceased) was diagnosed with leukemia, Frederick sold lemonade at her church to support cancer research. She also recruited friends to help at a breast cancer fundraising basketball game and recognize survivors with pink roses.