Tony Ramirez, one of the monthly Jefferson Award winners from the San Antonio area last year, has been chosen to go to Washington, D.C. for national recognition.
The Jefferson Award is often called the "Nobel Prize for Public Service." It's a national program started in Washington, D.C. 40 years ago.
Every month, News 4 WOAI is proud to honor someone here in our area who has gone way above and beyond in their service to others.
Today, a panel including the District Attorney Susan Reed, Mayor Julian Castro, and S.A. Police Chief William McManus, decided which of those monthly winners will go to Washington, D.C. later this year.
Tony Ramirez won that honor for his program called Kids Can. He started it a few years ago at his school and it's now spread to several other schools.
Kids are asked to bring in gently-used toys they don't want anymore. Then later, they're asked to bring in cans of food which they can use to "buy" any of the toys they want. The bigger the toy, the more cans of food it takes to buy them.
Then the cans of food go to the Food Bank and the toys that didn't sell go to the Medina Children's Home.
Check out the video.
