Nevada's Top Two Youth Volunteers Selected in National Awards Program; Reno and Gardnerville students earn $1,000 awards, engraved silver medallions and trip to nation's capital.

CARSON CITY, Nev., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Joel Zink, 17, of Reno and Rachael Lambin, 13, of Gardnerville today were named Nevada's top two youth volunteers for 2004 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its ninth year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). More than 20,000 high school and middle level students submitted applications for this year's program.

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Joel was nominated by Robert McQueen High School in Reno, and Rachael was nominated by JRJ School in Minden. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees -- one middle level and one high school youth -- from each of the other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America's top youth volunteers for 2004 at that time.

Joel, a senior at Robert McQueen High School, developed a television broadcasting system at his school to replace outmoded intercom equipment and greatly improve the dissemination of news and information to students and teachers. During his freshman year, Joel was struck by the poor audio quality of the daily intercom announcements, and the lack of student interest in them. "I was surprised that the school had no effective means of…