NC Youth of the Year
Destiny Blake: 2015 North Carolina Military Youth of the Year
Destiny Blake has been attending the Tolson Youth Activities Center on Fort Bragg for the past three years. She shares that she has learned respect, discipline, and adaptation as part of a military family, but it is a lifestyle that also comes with some challenges.
Destiny comments that the hardest part of growing up in the military is the moving. She has already lived in Delaware, Germany, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas and finally moved to North Carolina in the 4th grade. Her father has been deployed during many of these moves, so it has put a strain on their relationship due to those deployments. She wishes she could be with him more often. The youth center has been a place to help fill some of those gaps and provide additional support.
She has been a very active member of the Tolson Youth Activities Center over the years and currently serves as President of the Keystone Club. She has participated in the Polar Plunge as a volunteer helper to raise money for charity and volunteer at the local Food Bank. As a leader, she is also consistently engaged with various projects such as the organizing the Easter Egg Carnival, visiting Wounded Warriors, collecting food bank donations, planning the Haunted House and supporting the Angel Tree program. Eric Pugh, one of the professional staff at the center, states that “Destiny is a born leader and positive role model in our program, and she is competent in many ways as a leader.” While she maintains her involvement at the youth center, she is just as active in academics.
Destiny is a junior at Massey Hill Classical High School where she is enrolled in a college preparatory curriculum. Her current weighted GPA is 4.15, ranking her 20th of 79 students in her class. She is very active in school being and a gifted dancer. Destiny was cast as the lead in “The Piano Lesson” and has taught parents and guests a dance routine based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” She was also recognized as a member of the National Honor Society, selected to the All-County Dance, and honored as a Grand Prize Winner of the Dreamville Foundation’s Essay Contest.
Destiny plans to attend the University of North Carolina Greensboro to obtain a degree in pharmacy. She comments “I believe that everyone should be given the same opportunities and treated fairly in every aspects of life, especially education. The kids that live in the United States of America are lucky because their education from grades K-12 is paid, but other kids overseas are not so lucky.” Clearly, the military life she has experienced has given her a global perspective on the lives of children. We are proud to recognize her as your 2015 Military Youth of the Year!