Miami Palmetto High School rising senior Madeline Hoel won the Core Value Award given at the end of the year awards ceremony. She’s also won awards from the Palmetto Junior Varsity Lacrosse team. Her freshman year she won the Player with the Most Heart Award, the Best Defensive Player Award and she has been captain of the junior varsity team.
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This summer, Hoel is spending her days helping disabled kids ride horses at the Whispering Mane Therapeutic Riding Center in Horse Country.
Hoel herself rides English Hunter Jumper horses but she doesn’t compete. She currently can’t ride because she is recovering from ACL surgery.
“As a volunteer I am there to horse handle,” she says. “You lead the horse while the child with disabilities is riding it. The idea is to connect horses and the people together. To help create that bond between the horse and the kids.”
She’s been a volunteer at the facility since her freshman year and she loves working with the kids and horses.
“I talk about going to the camp all school year,” she says. “I truly love being there. During the school year, I try to go once or twice every six weeks.”
Later this summer, Hoel is going to Michigan to take a 4H program that will teach her how to drive mini horses.
Hoel also volunteers at Frank C. Martin K-8 teaching middle school students how to do community service.
“I helped found a Builder’s Club at FC Martin,” she says. “Through Key Club we give them the opportunity to volunteer and give them community service hours. We’ve done a few things for the school itself like Teacher Grams where we created little bags for teachers. We gave out cards for Teacher Appreciation week.”
This coming year they want to work on teacher lounges by painting them and fundraise for new art pieces, furniture and loading the vending machines with upgraded snacks.
Hoel’s community service activities include being the National Honor Society’s Panther Buddies liaison at school. She connects the student body with the special needs program.
“It’s not a one-on-one scenario,” she says. “I try to make it as connected as possible. We will continue the Special Olympics as a priority.”
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She plans to continue the lunch program where NHS members have lunch with the special needs kids once a week or once every other week. And she hopes to bring out the individual personalities of the students by having them create vision boards about themselves that will help them connect with other people.
The program is important to her because she’s close to her uncle who has Down’s Syndrome.
“He lives in my house,” she says. “I’m one of his caretakers. My job is to take him to Special Olympics, and make sure he’s fed.”
Hoel is the incoming Chief of the Senate, which puts her in charge of all the Senate boards to make sure they are all doing their jobs. She is a member of the English Honor Society and the in-coming chair of the Palmetto Bay Youth Council Task Force.
“We have yearlong projects,” she says. “Last year we worked with the Buddy Bench program, which was awesome. It’s basically an opportunity for kids to make friends. It’s really sweet. We added a little free library. We did it with a Girl Scout Troop. We help if the mayor needs help and work the little events.”
The programs for the upcoming year will be decided in the first two meetings of the year.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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