Outstanding Oriole Award Recognizes Students’ Actions

With the many awards and certifications available to students now, not many acknowledge a student’s good actions or effort outside the classroom, with the exception of the Outstanding Oriole Award which it’s sole purpose is to commemorate them.

Unlike the Rotary Award or any Student of the Month awards who honor a student’s academic accomplishments, the Outstanding Oriole Award granted to students who’s good actions get noticed. It is a nomination award where the community members elect a winner and thanks them for their actions.

“I truly feel his [Sutter] generosity,” The L Family said in HUHS’s November announcements. “This type of generosity just proves the beauty of young people in our community of Hartford.”

The L. Family had lost their home to a fire one year ago and faced financial difficulties because of it. However, when Mitchell Sutter, a Junior at HUHS and co-winner of the Outstanding Oriole Award, overheard, he paid for the family’s meal with his own money, earning him a nomination and win for the award. “This type of generosity just proves the beauty of young people in our community of Hartford,” The L Family stated..

“I paid for the families bill because I just thought that they needed something good and happy to happen in their life at this moment,” Sutter said.

While Sutter’s small but extremely meaningful action touched the family’s heart, the other winner of the Outstanding Oriole Award also lives through those small moments.

Freshman Alaina Shelsta, who is diagnosed with epilepsy and GLUTI Deficiency Syndrome, also won this award after being nominated by her mother, Christine Shelsta, and her teacher’s aid, Michelle Rusniak.

“She loves every class she’s in and always is raising her hand and always asking questions and always smiling,” Rusniak said. “She’s always saying hello to everyone.”

While her politeness and friendliness to others did not go unnoticed by others and, in fact, won her an award for it, the Outstanding Oriole award itself did not mean much to her in terms of the HUHS water bottle of Culver’s gift card prize. Instead, it was more about the actions of those around than her own.

“To be honest, it’s really not that important to me,” Shelsta said. “I just think it’s so cool how everybody cares so much about me. I think it’s just amazing what everyone does and how they’re so sweet and kind to me, everyone’s amazing.”

Sutter also believed the reactions and applause he got from others outweighed the physical prize.

“It means a lot by people’s reactions and even some of the students that I have seen at work and congratulate me for my actions,” Sutter said. “I thought that doing something nice or generous for someone is just something that you do out of a kind heart and wasn’t expecting any reward for it.”

The Outstanding Oriole Award does grant future benefits in colleges nor does it’s winners receive any advantages, however it represents HUHS’s students’s good actions in the community which is more than enough to be prized, acknowledged and, more importantly, recognized.