Moorestown High School senior Kelly Hall has been selected as the 2023 Rotary Student Citizen of the Year for her dedication to helping others through various community service projects.
Hall has been involved in the William Allen Middle School (WAMS) theater program for the past five years serving as a stage manager, and helps the directors and student actors at rehearsals, plans schedules, moves props and set pieces and runs the shows backstage during show nights.
“I help the director and the students with anything they might need,” Hall said. “During the shows I help them move the set pieces, I help tell them where they’re supposed to go onstage throughout the whole planning process … Basically anything on certain rehearsal days that they need me to do.”
She also volunteers at the Sunnybrook Swim Club every summer, where she helps write and organize paperwork, helps plan dive meets and championships, announces for the competitions and manages the kids during practices.
Last year, Hall was named dive team manager, and this summer wrote an article for their social media platforms after the divers won the South Jersey Diving Association Championship. Post-graduation, her plans involve going to a college with a journalism or English program, and applying for internships with different companies to gain more experience.
“ … I’m really interested in English, writing, journalism, all of those sorts of disciplines,” Hall noted. “I’m really excited to get out of the high school sphere and into a bigger genre of school, friends, classes and more service and more opportunities.”
As a freshman, she set a goal of completing 1,000 hours of community service.
“I don’t think that I’ve hit that,” Hall acknowledged, “but it honestly doesn’t really matter to me anymore, because as I have done all the service over the years, it’s just been a really rewarding experience for me because I love helping people, and I love seeing people get better at something.”
She also sees helping people as a way for her to grow.
“ … Not only are they improving, but I’m also improving in a way by seeing them flourish and thrive in what they love to do,” Hall said.
Hall will be honored alongside Moorestown’s 2023 Citizen of the Year, Karen Reiner, at the Community House on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the celebration are available through any member of the Lions and Rotary clubs, or at the Community House, Moorestown Hardware and Ralph’s Market.
Hall admires the support and kindness of her family, friends and the community.
“If I didn’t live in Moorestown and I lived somewhere else, I don’t know if I would’ve found a swim club that I could’ve volunteered at,” Hall said, “or if I would’ve found a middle-school theater program that would’ve taken me in and helped me and allowed me all of this volunteer time.”
Hall shared what she would like her community to know about her.
“I’m not really this all-for-seeing being that is just amazing at community service and I can do all these great things,” she pointed out. “I’m kind of just like a normal girl that just wants to get out there …
“If you really want to do something, put your mind to it and you can get there.”
