COPPERAS COVE, Texas — These tough times have not dulled the giving spirit of several Copperas Cove students who were nominated for the Central Texas Incredible Kid Award.
Central Texas Incredible Kid is a highly coveted honor that ten students in our area are nominated for each year. Despite the pandemic, Copperas Cove ISD still highlighted their nominees.
6 News spoke with a few of the nominees, all of whom have clocked hundreds of community service hours, like eighth-grader Angelica Torres.
The reigning Young Miss Five Hills suffers from two heart conditions and has spent much of her time in and out of hospitals. However, she turned that challenge into a positive one.
This year she hosted a Go Red for Women fashion show and raised more than two thousand dollars for the American Heart Association.
"I'm excited about it because I can share my story to more people and raise awareness about heard disorders because the smallest little sign might be a heart disorder and knowing could save your life," Torres said.
Junior Miss Five Hills Hayley Sawyer, 9, stays busy and has clocked more than one thousand community service hours. She's participated in many clothing and collection drives for the homeless. Most notably, she has raised 750 dollars to support homeless veterans through Operation Stand Down Central Texas.
"I just wanted to help homeless veterans. I wanted to help the community feel like they were doing something great in the community and try to inspire them to do even better," Sawyer said.
Cub Scout and Little Mister Five Hills third-grader Noah Spitzer loves reading. He donates books to Copperas Cove schools in his free time, including a donation of 100 books to children at the Boys and Girls Club. He's now sanitizing and donating books to the community so they have something to do during the pandemic.
"Even though things are bad, just keep on reading through them. Just keep on reading through the pandemic and soon enough it will go away" Spitzer said.
All of the students hold titles with the Five Hills organization and completed much of their service projects through them. They are all honored to be recognized and hope that sharing their story encourages everyone young and old to become an incredible community servant too.
Over the last five years, Copperas Cove has had 18 students selected as Central Texas Incredible Kids. A look at all the Cove students nominated is listed below.
- Copperas Cove High School sophomore Ariel Draper hosts an annual fundraiser each year to benefit a local non-profit organization and has raised more than $3,300 over the last three years. She is a youth facilitator each year for the Lone Star Leadership Academy.
- S. C. Lee eighth-grader Angelica Torres, the reigning Young Miss Five Hills, suffers from two different heart conditions and has undergone multiple surgeries. She hosted a Go Red for Women Fashion Show this year and has raised nearly $2,000 for the American Heart Association in the last year. She has more than 500 hours of volunteer service this school year.
- Copperas Cove Junior High Bullpup band member Daniel Smith also serves as a cheer manager. He excels academically and serves on the CCJHS Campus Improvement Club where he ensures all students are included in school activities.
- Clements/Parsons Elementary students Elijah Bell and Sylvie Cresswell were both selected as the school’s Incredible Kids. Elijah is a member of the student council and goes out of his way to help others no matter the need. Sylvie is known to always do what is right and does not back down from a bully. She rang bells for the Salvation Army, collected socks for the needy, and empties classroom recycle bins.
- Emma Baldwin attends House Creek Elementary and is very helpful in the classroom. She is very conscious of her environment and is focused on making positive changes in the world. She is always has a pleasant disposition and excels academically.
- Martin Walker Elementary’s Emerson Turner was born with a rare congenital malformation of the heart known as Tetralogy of Fallot and also suffers from the neurological order, apraxia. Despite her personal challenges, Emerson is in the school choir, drama club, and excels academically.
- Third-grader Noah Spitzer of Williams/Ledger Elementary is also the reigning Little Mister Five Hills and ensues that the Little Free Libraries at all CCISD schools are filled with books monthly and hosts regular book collections to ensure he has plenty of books available. In partnership with H-E-B, Noah also hosted a holiday book giveaway where he gave more than 100 books to children at the Boys & Girls Club. He is also active in the Boy Scouts.
- Williams/Ledger Elementary first-grader Jackson Gibbs, the reigning Junior Mister Five Hills, hosted the 2nd Annual Lil’ Dawg and Lil’ Lady Dawg Homecoming Dance, raising more than $2,000 to start a weekend backpack program at his school to ensure students who would otherwise go without meals on the weekends had food.
- Nine-year-old Hayley Sawyer is dedicated to helping the homeless through her H3: Hayley Helps the Homeless project that she created as Junior Miss Five Hills. Hayley headed up CCISD’s 4th Annual Laundry Day to stock the Communities in Schools clothing pantries in CCISD. She has conducted numerous collection drives for homeless organizations and recently donated $750 she raised to Operation Stand Down-Central Texas to support homeless veterans. Hayley and her volunteers painted the fence at the Copperas Cove Soup Kitchen and power-washed the client buildings at Cove House Emergency Homeless Shelter. She has more than 1,000 hours of community service in the last school year.
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