AMHERST — Several young people will be honored for their compassion toward others with Human Rights Heroes Awards at a ceremony on Saturday.
The Amherst Human Rights Commission is recognizing several local students who have demonstrated an ability to love and care for their families, schools and community through acts of kindness, unselfishness, social courage or community service.
The ceremony runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Mill River Recreation Area in North Amherst, with attendees bringing a potluck dish to share.
Those being celebrated include 11 individuals and two groups, as well as a special recognition for an adults group.
“The recipients this year represent the various ways we support each other in our community, from recognition of our common rights to the celebration of our differences,” commission Chairman Matthew Charity said in a statement.
Charity added that the recipients have shown deep commitment to making society more equitable, more sustainable and more loving.
The honoress are Crocker Farm School third-grader Rubianny Fernandez Valerio, Wildwood fifth-grader Anika Alschuler, Fort River sixth-grader Kevin Fontanez, Amherst Regional Middle School seventh-graders Anja Eriksen, Naomi Zeidenberg, and Sylvie Hope, middle school eighth-grader Elias Smith, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts 10th-grader Viseth Loeung Rinehart and Nicholas Rivera, Lauren Phillips Jackson, Isaiah Meade and Regina Alkiewicz, all recent Amherst Regional High School graduates.
Among their accomplishments were using art and activism to promote social and racial justice, volunteering for a U.N. Refugee Agency fundraiser, teaching fellow students about transgender, gender-fluid and non-binary people, and translating 911 emergency calls for Spanish-speaking relatives. Each was nominated for the award.
The group awards are going to the Amherst Regional Middle School LGBT and Friends Café and the Amherst Regional High School Refugees in Distress Club.
The special recognition award honors Amnesty International Group 128, based in Amherst, the Jones Library, middle school faculty and administration and University of Massachusetts teaching interns who have worked with classes to create an annual exhibit for Human Rights Day.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
