St. Augustine eighth-grader receives Leaders of Hope Award for anti-bullying efforts

Charlotte Collier, an eighth-grade student at St. Augustine School in Kelso, was recently awarded a Leaders of Hope Award for her acts of kindness and community service.

The Leaders of Hope Awards are presented each year by Baker Implement Co., in collaboration with Case IH, to reward “special young adults for their hard work in the community". Collier was named the third-place Grand Reserve winner for this year and, at 13 years old, is the award’s youngest-ever recipient.

As part of the award process, Collier was required to write an essay explaining her community service. Collier’s essay wowed the judges.

“She was the youngest one in this category and had such a great essay that she was awarded for her hard work,” a Facebook post from the Leaders of Hope Award announcing Collier as the winner said. “We are so proud of Charlotte and know she will accomplish great things!”

Collier was nominated for the award by the diocese’s school counselor, Preeti Mungee, after Mungee learned about Collier’s efforts to reduce bullying in the school.

“Because there are so many schools under my jurisdiction, I took my time,” Mungee said. “Then, I found that Charlotte had started an anti-bullying program all by herself. She was the champion of it. The thought was hers. Everything was hers, and she just championed it for our school at St Augustine.

“She rallied up her classmates. She rallied up the entire school, and it was just fabulous, just absolutely fabulous. At that point in time, I knew that this was the student that we needed to recognize.”

Collier, who resides in Scott City, took her stance against bullying during the 2023 school year, promoting an Anti-Bullying Week campaign that featured a special activity each day to raise awareness on the topic. In addition to the daily activities, Collier created the “Bully Box” where students can report bullying anonymously.

“Last year we were dealing with a lot of bullying, and it was really neat to see her kind of rally with a couple of other girls and set up this anti-bullying week,” St. Augustine principal Katie Hendricks said. “It wasn't just one small thing. … Usually, if you see kids starting to do something, they'll just do that one thing, but it was an entire week of events.”

Collier and her friends preceded Anti-Bullying Week with a short skit and a PowerPoint presentation outlining the next week’s events and the types of bullying. St. Augustine opened the week by praying to the rosary for bullying victims. Some of the themed dress-up days included dressing as “your unique self”, dressing as “someone’s superhero”, promoting a “cozy school environment” by wearing pajamas and wearing the anti-bullying colors pink and orange.

“We were in ELA and we were doing an assignment about bullying,” Collier said. “My teacher kind of threw the idea out, and me and my friends thought that was a good idea so we decided to actually do something. … We thought of stuff to do throughout the whole week. We kept talking to Mrs. Hendricks and making sure they were good ideas, and then she just kind of let it happen.”

In addition to her efforts to reduce bullying at her school, Collier gives back to her school community in other ways. She spends time with the kindergarten and preschool students after school is dismissed until their parents come to pick them up, organized the school’s annual Spring Craft Fair — donating 50% of its proceeds to Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri’s LifeHouse Crisis Maternity Home — and served as treasurer on the student council.

“I choose to do things for others because I know that God wants more people in the world to do that,” Collier said. “I also want to encourage younger kids to be kind so that in the future their kindness will help others, too.

“Helping others makes me feel proud of myself, and seeing other people happy makes me happy.”

Along with her family, Collier also participates in events to help raise awareness about organ and tissue donation and fundraising for Mid-America Transplant, including baking goods for Scott City High School’s annual “Green Out” football, baseball and softball games. Dominic Hooper, the inspiration behind the “Green Out” games, was Collier’s cousin and godfather. Hooper died in 2014 in an ATV accident and his organs were donated to five people waiting to receive life-saving transplants.

Collier’s mother, Becky Collier, expressed pride in her daughter’s accomplishments.

“I think last year was a struggle for her at the beginning of the year, and she really stepped up and matured a lot,” Becky Collier said. “She worked on ways to improve herself, and I think that showed to other people.

“I’m just really proud that she was able to get that across and to help others.”