Yorktown HS Senior to Receive Milly Kibrick Youth Service Award

Yorktown High School senior Jeff Naft is among 10 Westchester high school seniors, including one other YHS senior, who have shown exceptional commitment to their local communities.

He has been selected as a recipient of the Westchester County Youth Board’s 2012 Milly Kibrick Youth Service Award.

Naft will be honored at a dinner Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the Davenport Club, 400 Davenport Ave., New Rochelle. The students will receive various gifts and a plaque.

The Milly Kibrick Youth Service Awards are given in memory of Milly Kibrick, a prominent county social worker and youth activist, who dedicated her life to helping underprivileged children. During her career and in retirement, she was the quintessential social worker, social entrepreneur, volunteer and political activist, pursuing social and economic justice for children of all ages.

Naft is a ' which educates students about the justice system. In order to graduate, students must pass a ‘Mock Bar Exam.’ Graduates then try real juvenile cases, and the juvenile defendants are sentenced to community service, which is decided by the Youth Court. He has served in the capacity of Head Judge, District Attorney, and Defense Attorney.

The student was chosen to receive the F. Cecil Grace Foundation Operation Positive Role Model Award, which recognizes students for “doing the right thing.” He was one of the founders of “Operation G.R.A.C.E.” at his school and through this club. Naft volunteers to be a “Special Reader” at the local elementary school. He has raised funds for the ‘American Cancer Society Relay for Life,’ is vice president of the Yorktown High School ‘Key Club’ and has served as head bingo announcer during bingo at the Country House, a senior assisted community in Yorktown Heights.

Naft is an active member of Holy Spirit Church in Cortlandt Manor and volunteers to assist with the children’s Liturgy and as a counselor at their vacation bible camp. He has been involved in the “Giving Tree,” which is a means to collect Christmas gifts for families in shelters. He is also a member of the Yorktown United Methodist Church Youth Group, where he has helped prepare and serve meals at the homeless shelter Jan Peek,.

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