Student recognized for paying it forward

April 27, 2008 Recommend
BY JULIE MULLEN For The Courier News
Elgin High School senior Abraham Lopez has spent nearly four years helping others in need, expecting nothing in return except for them one day to go out and help someone else.

The concept of "paying it forward," which originally came from a novel and subsequent blockbuster movie, has turned into a worldwide social movement.

Lopez, after participating in Pay It Forward bus tours, brought the concept back to his Elgin school in 2007.

"We go to areas of the country that really need help," Lopez said. "We show how 40 students can really make a difference."

Elgin High School recently finished its second Pay It Forward bus tour thanks to Lopez, who recently was recognized with a Certificate of Excellence from the 2008 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program.

Presented annually by Prudential Financial in partnership with the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, the awards honor middle and high school students across America for their outstanding community service.

As in Pay It Forward, a book published in 2000 by Catherine Ryan Hyde, when someone does a charitable act, rather than paying them back, the recipient does something for someone else. As the pyramid expands, so do the good deeds.

Four years after the book and movie emerged, Pay It Forward tours were created by the Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization Students Today Leaders Forever, which conducts the tours from select high schools and colleges nationwide.

Students participating in Pay It Forward tours pay a $425 fee to travel to areas in need and perform various service projects. Lopez has worked in Tennessee's National Park, with the Special Olympics and, on his most recent tour, visited hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, among other places.

Lopez, 18, began doing the tours his sophomore year after attending a national leadership camp the prior summer in New York. He had met others participating in Pay It Forward tours and took his first trip with a group based out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Predominately a college initiative, Elgin High School is only one of 11 high school affiliates in the Pay It Forward tour program. Unlike the nine-day college tours, high school tours run just five days.

Besides U of I, another Pay It Forward tour chapter can be found at Illinois State University, where Lopez is headed in the fall to study communications.

Call him a perpetual do-gooder, or just a guy who likes to travel and lend a hand, Lopez said he feels good about helping others and hopes his efforts snowball as the Pay It Forward mantra goes.

"It gives me a positive outlook on life and not to take things for granted," Lopez said. "I just want to continue to help others -- to pay it forward."

Elgin High School student Abraham Lopez, 18, participated in the Students Today Leaders Forever Pay It Forward program.