Mitchell County Young Marines receive President’s Volunteer Service Award

CAMILLA — More than 60 Mitchell County Young Marines helped earned the President’s Volunteer Service award recently. Each of the young Marines in the unit was given a lapel pin and service ribbon to wear on their uniforms.

“Over the past year, you have served as models of the American spirit,” President Donald Trump wrote in a letter to the Mitchell County School District announcing the award. “Your many hours of service have strengthened the bonds of cooperation and trust that bring people together, while helping to address some of the greatest challenges of our time.

“Thank you for your enduring commitment to serving your community and our nation.”

The Young Marines is a youth education and service program for boys and girls, ages 8 through completion of high school, and promotes the mental, moral and physical development of its members.

The program focuses on character building, leadership, and promotes a healthy, drug-free lifestyle. The Young Marines is the focal point for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Youth Drug Demand Reduction efforts.

The only membership requirement for being a part of the Young Marines program is that youths must be in good standing at school. Since the Young Marines’ humble beginnings in 1959, with one unit and a handful of boys, the organization has grown to more than 300 units with 10,000 youths and 3,000 adult volunteers in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Germany, Japan, and affiliates in a number of other countries.

Young Marines units are community-based programs led by dedicated adult volunteers. Many of these volunteers are former, retired, active-duty or reserve Marines who believe passionately that the values they learned as Marines had a positive effect on them. It is through these caring adults that Young Marines learn the inner values of honor, courage and commitment.

Adult volunteers are individually screened by the organization’s national headquarters based on background information and recommendations provided with each person’s registration.

The mission of the Young Marines is to positively impact America’s future by providing quality youth development programs for boys and girls that nurture and develop its members into responsible citizens who enjoy and promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.