Jenny Zisette of Langley is the second South End teenager in four months to be caught doing good in her community.
In front of family members and supporters, the 15-year-old South Whidbey High School sophomore was honored by the Island County Children’s Commission at the last meeting of the school board.
She was saluted for her efforts to put on a talent show that raised more than $4,300 for cash-strapped South Whidbey Co-op Preschool in Langley.
“She’s a great kid,” said Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson, a former South Whidbey school board member who has known Zisette for about five years.
Price Johnson nominated Zisette for the award.
“Her actions are a great example for all of us to make a positive difference,” Price Johnson said. “She saw a need, and took action.”
“Caught in the Act” (CITA) is a recently established awards program of the volunteer children’s commission, which was established in 2007 to address the needs of young people in the county and to break down the barriers between youths and adults.
Zisette is the second South Whidbey teen to win the award. The first was Maverick Christensen, 13, of Freeland, who was honored last December for his unsolicited helpfulness toward fellow students at Langley Middle School.
The commission also has presented awards to a Coupeville student and three teens in Oak Harbor, and Camano Island is gearing up for a presentation soon, said Cynthia Shelton of Langley, one of 20 members of the commission scattered throughout the county.
“We’re looking for kids caught doing something good that nobody asked them to do,” Shelton said.
“I was very surprised,” Zisette said later. “It was nice of them to make it into a big deal. I feel very honored.”
Zisette, a straight-A student with plenty of extracurricular interests including theater and jazz band, was saluted for her efforts on behalf the co-op preschool, where her mother Michelle is a parent-educator.
“She said ‘Let’s do it,’” her mother said when the topic of how to ease the preschool’s financial pain came up one day. “She got the ball rolling.”
Zisette, who has been involved with the productions of the Whidbey Children’s Theater in Langley since she was 4, knew that the theater group often put on shows to raise money for community causes.
Through Facebook, e-mails and general networking, she drummed up support for a talent show to benefit the preschool. Other teens and adults in the theater and preschool communities fed off her energy, and a successful production in late January was the result.
“We’re thinking of making it an annual event,” Jenny Zisette said. “I’m already thinking about next year.”
Zisette is the daughter of Michelle and Don Zisette of Langley. She has a brother Andy, 13 and a sister Mary, 8. All have attended the co-op preschool.
She plays the trumpet in the school jazz band, and will appear in Whidbey Island Center for the Arts’ upcoming production of “The Kentucky Cycle.”
She plans to attend college after high school, but is uncertain of a course of study, although she will continue with the arts.
And she’ll continue to help out in her community whenever possible.
“There’s all sorts of need right now,” she said.
Youths to age 20 can be CITA-nominated by anyone who wants to reward acts of unselfishness, Shelton said.
In the past two years, a number of sessions throughout the county have been conducted by the commission with teenagers and adults to determine how each group views the other, and to search for common ground.
“We want adults to say they know some neat kids,” Shelton said.
For information about the children’s commission, or to make a CITA nomination, call Dan Bond at 360-678-7884, e-mail danb@co.island.wa.us, or visit the Web site www.islandcounty.net/health/Children’s_Commission.
