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| Area Teens Come Together To Show Princeton They CareCandace BraunIn just a few short weeks, Princeton teens will gather together for an afternoon of community service activities to show Princeton how today's youth can contribute to society in a significant way. The project, "Make a Mess, Make a Difference," is part of a new teen organization, Princeton Cares, founded by Princeton Day School junior Lexi Shechtel. After volunteering over the last few years with Homefront, Lexi felt it was time to find a way to help other teens find a way to give something back to Princeton. On Sunday, April 3, students from the Hun School, Pennington School, Princeton Day School, Princeton High School, Lawrenceville Prep, and Stuart Country Day School will convene in different parts of town to help out with service projects such as book maintenance at the Princeton Public Library, a basketball clinic for Homefront children at an area school gym, and packing lunches for a food pantry at The Jewish Center. The project is being sponsored locally by McCaffrey's Market, Hamilton Jewelers, and Target. Inspiration for Princeton Cares came from New York Cares, an organization which offers professional-quality volunteer organizing and project planning to a wide range of social service agencies, schools, and environmental groups. New York Cares holds four large-scale events annually, with as many as 8,000 participants. Princeton Cares aims to pursue a similar mission, but on a smaller, more local scale, said Lexi. Like New York Cares, it will have various service projects for teens to be involved in; however, they will all take place on one day each year. Some of the other projects Lexi is looking to get area youths involved in include cleaning up War Memorial Park on Mercer Street, and painting a mural at the Mercer County Youth Detention Center. To get the project going, Lexi has assigned captains at each of the Princeton public and private schools to recruit students for this year's event. Hoping to get as many as 100 students involved, school captains are currently making announcements, hanging posters, and talking to friends about the project. "This year's event will be the first of what I hope will become an annual tradition," said Lexi, adding that she has received a lot of local support toward the project. "Both [Township] Mayor Phyllis Marchand and [Borough] Mayor Joe O'Neill have been wonderfully supportive and helpful with this effort." Mayor Marchand recalled meeting with Lexi in January and being very impressed with her background in volunteerism, and her desire to offer free services to the community. "I think it's wonderful to see the commitment they are making," she said, adding that in order to help promote the project, the Township has made its website available to Princeton Cares. Any teens interested in getting involved in the April 3 event can contact Lexi Shechtel by calling (609) 683-1617, emailing ashechtel@pds.org, or visiting the Princeton Township website, http://www.princetontwp.org, and clicking on "Princeton Cares." | |||||||||||||||