EAST BRUNSWICK — East Brunswick High School student Taran Sayal has spent the better part of her junior year helping others, without expecting to reap rewards or benefits in return.
However, Sayal’s generous deeds have not only been appreciated by her benefactors, but they have been recognized by statewide organizations and the community at large as well.
The 17-year-old recently received the New Jersey Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma Ambassador Award and the United Way Home Town Hero Award in honor of her numerous volunteer efforts over the past year.
Sayal has been an active volunteer in the community since age 12, when she began dedicating time to helping physically challenged children in the Buddy Division of the East Brunswick Baseball League.
At school, Sayal is secretary of her school’s Computer Club, which provides free computer training to senior citizens and other members of the community in need of technological savvy.
As a member of the East Brunswick Youth Council, Sayal has participated in various volunteer activities over the past three years, including Our Community Is Fair Day, UNICEF fundraiser, Literacy Walk, Adopt-a- Road cleanup and Arbor Day, among others. Since September, Sayal has been involved in the Adult Life Skills program, which provides a full range of courses designed to promote independent living skills for adults with developmental disabilities.
Sayal has also participated in numerous philanthropic endeavors as a Girl Scout, an activity she has been involved in since fourth grade.
But it was her most recent effort that has garnered recent accolades.
This past December, Sayal donated more than $600 worth of toys and electronics to Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick for its Child Life Program Playroom Wish List. She called the project Child’s Play, and through it met a number of objectives: She brought holiday cheer to hospitalized children, cleaned up an East Brunswick park in the process, and completed the requirements needed for her Gold Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive.
“I really liked this project. I had so much fun going to the hospital and giving away the toys,” she said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the kids’ faces, but I did get a thank-you letter. And I know that they must have loved the gifts.”
Sayal was able to raise $400 from engaging in two cleanups of Country Lane Park under the township’s Clean Communities program, and $219 from a yard sale she organized. She recruited friends and classmates to volunteer and donate unwanted books and toys, which she rescued and recycled so that items that would have otherwise been trashed in landfills could be reused. She also pitched in her own possessions.
Sayal said that she started the project in the summer of 2009, and that Child’s Play was created in part to commemorate the loss of her cousin, who died from Tay-Sachs disease at 18 years old in December 2008.
“After my cousin died, I really wanted to do something in her memory,” she said.
Sayal did just that and more.
The high school student’s latest endeavor, compounded with her previous volunteerism, drew the attention of the community, prompting another award.
Sayal received the 2010 United Way of Central Jersey Home Town Hero award in the Outstanding Student category at a special reception at Hess Corporate Center in Woodbridge on April 15.
United Way, an organization that provides leadership to create opportunities for needy people, gives out the Hometown Hero award every year during National Volunteer Month to recognize outstanding volunteers who have contributed to the community.
“I received this award because of what I was doing for the Gold Award,” said Sayal, whose nomination was submitted by EBHS Assistant Principal Leslie Szukics. “There were a lot of people I knew there from the East Brunswick Youth Council, but I was one of the few that received the award as an individual.”
Sayal was also honored with the 2010 New Jersey Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma Ambassador Award in the “Individual” category at a ceremony at the New Jersey Forensic Science Technology Center in Hamilton on May 18.
The Ambassador Award recognizes individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the effort to raise mental health awareness and combat mental health stigma. The award was more specifically for “Community Effort,” meaning that nominees must be engaged in efforts outside the scope of New Jersey mental health services.
“There were a lot of organizations honored at the award ceremony, but I received the award because I created a project and for all of my volunteer activities,” Sayal said, noting that she received a certificate mounted on a plaque and a certificate from Rep. Rush Holt.
Sayal said there were several very moving speeches at the reception, and her nerves kicked in upon learning that she was to give a speech too.
“I didn’t know I had to give a speech! So I wrote something down and memorized it before I had to go up there,” she said. “I spoke about the project, and thanked everyone involved.”
She is thankful to her mother, Sue Sayal, and her father, Paramjit “P.J.” Singh Sayal, as well as her troop leader and project adviser, Virginia C. Bartkowicz, troop leader and service unit manager Kathryn Foderaro and her friends for their help with the project.
Next on Sayal’s volunteer agenda is the Adopt-a-Road program, where she has recently been assigned to help clean up Old Bridge Turnpike this summer.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but there weren’t enough funds before,” she said.
Aside from community volunteerism, Sayal is an excellent student. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the Math Honor Society, and has taken 13 honors and Advanced Placement classes over her high school career.
Sayal plans to attend a seven-year medical program after she graduates, but has yet to choose a discipline.
“I have to work up my grades so I can get into a really good school,” she said. “But I think if I put the effort in, I can make it.”