Sophomore Tony Le received the President’s Volunteer Service Award in the silver category on Saturday, April 22. This award is given to individuals throughout the country who set themselves apart from their peers through many hours of volunteer work. For a teenager to get the award in the silver category they must put in at least 75 hours of volunteer work in the span of 12 months. Le received the prestigious award for putting in over 78 hours of volunteer work at the Mountlake Terrace Library in the past year.

While volunteering at the library, Le performs general tasks that the library needs to be completed, such as sorting books, helping people find what they need in the library and keeping the computers clean. Le also helps out with operating community events that are hosted by the library.

“Last month I was involved in a math problem where I got to help kids in elementary school learn how to play board games,” Le said.

Le volunteers at the library every Saturday from 9:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. He started to volunteer at the library over the summer of his eighth-grade year. His work at the library is the first volunteer work that he has undertaken and he plans to continue volunteering at the library until he graduates.

“What inspired me to start volunteering at the library was the advice of my mom, who convinced me that volunteer service would look good on my college resume,” Le said.

Since starting his volunteer work at the library, he has found a sense of fulfillment by helping out the community that he lives in. This, along with the benefit of adding the volunteer hours to his college resume, is the primary reason that he continues his service at the library.

Since starting his volunteer work, Le believes that he has gained many valuable skills due to his dedication to the work that he does at the library every Saturday.

“I have greatly improved my organizational skills, my communication skills and my ability to coordinate with my superiors since I have started doing my volunteer work. I have had to coordinate with my superiors many times, such as when there are days when I can’t come to volunteer,” Le said.

He also believes that he has gained many social skills from his work, which require him to work with other workers at the library to get his assigned tasks completed.

“I have been able to develop connections with the volunteer supervisor at the library as well as many of the other staff members and this has helped me to develop communication skills that I can use in other areas of my life,” Le said.
Since he is heavily involved in the STEM program here at MTHS, Le enjoys working with the computer section during his time at the library. He also enjoys sorting books in the fiction section, where he can discover a wide range of books that he may want to read in the future.