Douglas teen reaches out to others
 Sarah Prall, Arizona Daily Star Lyrice Gladwell at park she helps keep clean. |
By Ignacio Ibarra
The Arizona Daily Star
DOUGLAS -- Lyrice Gladwill is one of those people who sees strangers as friends you haven't met yet.
It's an attitude the 17-year-old Douglas High School senior learned from her parents, Herbert and Leslie Gladwill. It came in handy five years ago when the former Army brat found herself being moved from Fort Sill, Okla., to Douglas, where Hispanics make up about 85 percent of the population and blond, blue-eyed girls are not the norm.
"At first I didn't like it much at all because I was a minority," she said. "But there are a lot of nice people here. It's a good place to live."
Gladwill is an Honor Society student and ranked in the top 2 percent of her class. She's active in school organizations and well liked by classmates.
But Douglas High School teacher Linda Kleck said what makes Gladwill special is how hard she works to make Douglas even nicer.
Whether it's painting over graffiti in local parks or at the school, working to increase awareness of drugs and AIDS, decorating for a school dance, or removing trash from vacant land, Kleck said, Gladwill is very generous with her time.
Gladwill also has set aside time to work with two groups that need the most attention.
She is a member of a peer leadership program at her school and has been a leader in the organization of the Youth Advocacy Group, in which high school students visit the Douglas school district's elementary schools to teach values and provide role models for younger children.
Gladwill also donates time once a week to a local nursing home, where she helps with activities and spends time with the residents.
"My contact with her has always been through extracurricular activities, but it is very gratifying to see her develop into a very caring and very successful young lady that you know is going places," said Kleck.
Sharing her time with people who need it is something she and her six siblings learned at home, Gladwill said.
"My parents have always been a wonderful example to us. They taught us it brings good feelings to do something for someone else. Not for the praise you get, but just by knowing you've helped," she said.
Gladwill said for the last two years she and her family have anonymously adopted a family she feels needs some help, and provided food and gifts for Christmas.
She said one of her most rewarding efforts has been the time spent working with grade school kids on values.
"I like working with kids. They teach me a lot about preparation and patience," she said.
After graduation, Gladwill said she'll be headed to Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher for a couple of years before entering Arizona State University at Tempe.
"I want to major in music and voice, and I think I'd like to teach," she said.