Utah Young Humanitarian Award

Who: Chelsea Gould
Age: 18
What: President of Operation Smile Chapter and More…

After working with the HUGS Foundation this past summer in Rochester, NY, we at Believe In Youth have a soft spot for those working toward a similar cause. Not only was Chelsea Gould the President of her local chapter in a similar organization, but she has done much more, earning Utah’s Young Humanitarian Award along the way.

Orem girl named Utah’s Young Humanitarian
BROOKE BARKER - Daily Herald

Chelsea Gould has traveled as far as Kenya and Mexico on humanitarian projects, but she hasn’t forgotten about the children in her own neighborhood.

Gould, an Orem High senior, was recently named as Utah’s Young Humanitarian for 2007 by YouthLINC, a Utah based non-profit organization hoping to instill life-long service in young people.

“I think it was just her dedication to constantly doing service and her motivation,” said Terry Palmer, a local service coordinator for YouthLINC. “She seems to just simply want to serve her community and her world.”

The award includes a $5,000 scholarship, which Gould plans to use this fall at Dixie State College in St. George. One day she hopes to graduate from UVSC in nursing and start her own foundation in Kenya.

“She’s had a dream ever since she was a little girl to go to Africa to help children in orphanages,” said Michelle Gould, her mother.

In 2005, Chelsea traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, with her grandmother, where they spent five weeks working in orphanages, donating clothing, shoes and school supplies, and planting gardens, according to her mother.

“One of the biggest problems I saw when I went there was the orphanages didn’t test the kids for AIDS,” Gould said. “I want to get a nursing degree with that as my focus.”

She hopes to start an organization with her father, Ben Gould, aimed at providing AIDS/HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy to inhibit the spread of HIV for children in orphanages.

She is currently the president of her school’s Operation Smile chapter. The organization provides surgeries for children with cleft palettes, cleft lips, tumors and burns in Third World countries. Last summer, she traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico, to volunteer with the program.

Chelsea Gould has also volunteered for more than a year with Kids on the Move, a nonprofit organization that works with children with disabilities up to age 3.