The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) identifies 10 students across the country to receive the Youth Virtues, Valor, and Vision Award. The award recognizes extraordinary young people who through their selfless service, innovation, and commitment to social justice are changing the world.
Angelina O’Steen, a seventh-grade students at St. Mary School in Bryantown, Maryland was honored with the Youth Virtues, Valor, and Vision Award for her work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Cystic fibrosis is a disease that causes severe damage to the lungs and other organs.
Cathy Silverstone, principal at St. Mary School, made the announcement to the community after morning prayers and presented Angelina with the award. Angelina, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, has been an advocate for bringing awareness to the disease. She volunteers many hours hosting her own lemonade stand fund raisers, attending fund raising efforts of others, and building up those who are discouraged during their own hospital stays at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.
With fund raising efforts this year alone, Angelina and her team raised nearly $18,000 and since 2012 has donated almost $45,000 to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. These funds assist in community awareness of cystic fibrosis and efforts to find a cure.
Angelina said she “wants people to know that so many people suffer with this lung disease and that many are working to help find a cure.” She appreciates that people help her by making donations.
Jane Johnson, vice-principal at St. Mary School, said she has never heard or seen Angelina show pity for herself. Instead, her acts of mercy for others clearly bring to mind Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7
“Angelina is truly a model of the suffering servant who thinks not of herself, but of making the lives of others better,” Johnson said.
Angelina brings hope to others through her strong message and fundraising efforts to find a cure.
(Anne Dillon is director for Special Education for The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.)
