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07/20/2022 08:30 AMIf the phrase “Pay it Forward”—which first appeared in the 1916 book In the Garden of Delight by Lily Hardy Hammond—had a picture of a person to go along with it, the model in the photograph could be Jane Leamon. She’s only 17, but Jane’s goodwill toward others not only makes her an archetype of kindness but her extensive list of volunteer accomplishments to date has made her a Beacon Award nominee for 2022.
“I was raised to always be cognizant of other people and always have a sense of empathy,” explains Jane of her burning desire to help others in her hometown of North Haven, as well as in surrounding towns, like East Haven. “I've always just wanted to help people. When I was in 5th grade, I started a recycling campaign in my school when I learned about what trash was doing to the environment.”
Jane’s passion for community service, energetic commitment to helping others, and unwavering positive attitude, exemplify the Beacon Awards.
When COVID hit in March of 2020, Jane was in her first year of high school and found herself stuck at home most of the time, attending school remotely. When vaccines finally became available and the world began to open for business once again, Jane leaped at the opportunity to get back into the community.
In the spring of 2021, after joining the North Haven Lions Club for a clean-up event at a local park, Jane was inspired to begin the first-ever Leo Club in North Haven.
Since Jane is a high school student, she cannot attend many of the after-school clubs and events because she is also an active member of the ACES Educational Center for Arts, which operates late into the afternoon. She knew this was also a problem for many other students and believed if she founded a community-based service organization open to all students, she could open the door to service and leadership opportunities for many more students.
She also wanted the club to be completely operated by the students themselves and be free of religious and political influence or control. “I wanted all to feel welcome and empowered to make a difference and I wanted it to be fun,” notes Jane.
Within a few months, she recruited 15 new Leo members, and then the club elected Jane as the club's first president. The club received the official charter as North Haven’s first Leo Club in October 2021, and now the club is 20 members strong, all of whom do good work in the community.
“We assist the Lions in Second Saturday Food and Supply donation drives monthly,” says Jane, which, in turn, benefits such organizations as food pantries in North Haven, Fidelco Guide Dogs, Connecticut Veterans, and The Animal Haven pet shelter. She also hopes to help other food pantries, like the one at 39 Park Place in East Haven, in the future.
The club also held a bake sale and toy drive for the Yale Children's Hospital, created Valentine's cheer bags for seniors living in local assisted living communities, assisted the Parent Teacher Associations at the local elementary schools during their Shred Days and Blood Drives, provided cleanup services of many public spaces in town, and created and sold unique bracelets made from recycled can tabs, raising more than $300 which was donated to Save the Children to support their humanitarian aid during the crisis in Ukraine.
While Jane was in the midst of founding and leading the Leo Club, she also joined the Youth of Elm Shakespeare Advisory Council (Y.E.S.), a teen-run group that cares about the connection between theatre and social justice.
The group collaborates with the Elm Shakespeare’s Board of Directors and staff to address the needs and perspectives of students, those in the New Haven community, and the next generation of theater-makers.
Jane also volunteered as an assistant to the Elm Shakespeare Summer Camp for children ages 7 to 12 during the summer of 2021 where she helped the campers learn lines, create costumes, and understand stage blocking for a 30-minute abbreviated performance of a Shakespeare play, as performed from the original Shakespearean text.
For her numerous other tasks to help support the Elm Shakespeare organization, Jane was selected as one of the Teen Elm Scholar Interns for Elm Shakespeare Company in 2022, where she will work alongside professional Shakespeare company’s actors, directors, designers, and production staff during their free Shakespeare in the Park summer performances.
“It really helps me every day to know that I am doing something actively to help people,” explains Jane of all her volunteer efforts, and her reach beyond North Haven into surrounding communities. “It makes me feel good and it makes me really happy to know that there are people out there that are a little better off than they were before because of me and my actions.”
As Jane enters her senior year of high school, she has no idea what college she hopes to attend after graduation next year, but she does know she wants to study law, as well as study classic literature.
“I have a huge bookcase every time we go anywhere, I just have to look at the bookstore,” Jane says of her love of books and reading. And while she loves classic literature, like William Shakespeare, the young bibliophile has a great fondness for a Stephen King page-turner. “I really enjoy Stephen King, which doesn’t really correspond with the classics at all, but I love reading his books.”
Jane also admits to being a Harry Potter kid. “I’d like to believe that I’ve grown out of it,” she says with a laugh, “but give me a magic wand and I’m a full Harry Potter kid any day.”
But Jane says it was her work as an actor in Shakespearean plays that inspired her love of classic literature. “That kind of got me started on classical, older texts, but I'm really interested in learning how to read in ancient Greek and Latin and being able to read all of those original texts in the original languages,” says Jane.
Although Jane has been involved in many community organizations and events, to make her hometown and surrounding communities a better place for all residents, she maintains a school study discipline that has landed her on the honor roll in each year of her middle school and high school career. As a result of her high grades, Jane was recently just inducted into the National Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society.
In her spare time, Jane partakes of her other passion involving horses. She has won ribbons competing as a member of the J.C. Eventing team in North Haven and as an individual rider in Hunt Seat Equitation competitions around the state.
Jane admits that she’s still in a state of shock at being a Beacon Award nominee.
“I feel that when I do things, like with my club, and when I’m getting things done for the community, I feel it’s like a necessary service that I’m providing, so it’s kind of crazy to think that that is something that would get me recognition,” concludes Jane. “I do it [volunteer] because I enjoy it. I do because I want to help people. So, it’s super cool that others are recognizing that and awarding that now because I hope [this will] encourage others to do things for their community.”