The Inter-Mountain photo by Taylor McKinnie Staff from Youth Health Service’s (YHS) Family Support Center and staff from YouthBuild North Central came together Friday morning to celebrate YouthBuild North Central receiving YHS’s annual Heart of Giving Award.

ELKINS — North Central is this year’s recipient of Youth Health Service’s (YHS) Annual Heart of Giving Award.

The nonprofit organization was honored during an award ceremony Friday morning at the YHS Family Support Center. According to YHS Executive Co-Director Tammie Rizzio, YouthBuild North Central participants and program staff routinely help with transferring food from delivery trucks to Family Support Center’s food pantry and have assisted with bagging distributions during our holiday giveaways.

“(YouthBuild North Central) was definitely nominated just because of all the help that you and the kids have helped with,” Rosa Plaugher, Director of the YHS Family Support Center, said during the award ceremony. “Picking up Mountaineer Food Bank stuff, distributions, organizing, moving things around, so we just wanted to honor you guys and all the hard work that you’ve put in to help us be what we are today.”

YouthBuild North Central’s name was added to YHS’s Heart of Giving Award plaque and the program received a certificate in honor of their work that states, “Once in a while, those special people come along with the true heart of giving. Thank you for coming our way.” They also received a bag of baked goods as a thank you from YHS.

According to the Randolph County Housing Authority website, YouthBuild “rebuilds communities by providing valuable hands-on learning experiences that enable youth to learn valuable construction skills while building affordable housing and other community assets that make our communities stronger and more vital.” YouthBuild North Central is a local chapter that serves Randolph, Barbour, Tucker and Upshur counties.

When asked how it felt to receive the award, Courtney Lambert, YouthBuild North Central’s Program Manager, said it was “humbling.”

“I’ve been there a year, so to kind of just see all the hard work that we’ve put into the program and being appreciated is awesome,” Lambert told The Inter-Mountain after the award ceremony. “I can’t take credit for this whole award, it’s mostly our participants and my awesome staff that make all of this possible so we can give back to our community.”

The Heart of Giving Award, according to Rizzio, was established in 2016 in honor of Steve and Jean Jory for the “instrumental role” they played in YHS’s formative years. The award honors a person, persons, agency or organization that has helped YHS meet its mission in the community of “serving and meeting the needs of children and families in Randolph and surrounding counties.”

YouthBuild is the ninth recipient of the Heart of Giving Award. The 2023 Heart of Giving Award recipient was the Elkins Randolph County YMCA for their years of work in assisting YHS with providing Christmas gifts to children through YHS’s Angel Tree.

To learn more about Youth Health Services, visit youth-health.org. To learn more about YouthBuild North Central, visit rchawv.org/community-development/youthbuild-program/.