Teen leads by example

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Austen Pearce, 18, has already made a difference

Maricopa resident and recent high school graduate Austen Pearce was in third grade when Hurricane Katrina struck.

At the time, the youth had been saving every penny he had in hopes of buying himself a Game Boy Advance, but when his school held a coin drive to help families displaced by the storm, he knew what he had to do.

“It was just $36, but I took all the money I saved and just donated to Hurricane Katrina,” Pearce says.

From that moment on, the now 18-year-old knew he wanted to continue helping others. By fourth grade, Pearce started volunteering with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to raise money for childhood cancer research, and by age 10 he began helping out at local food bank F.O.R. Maricopa.

During his eight years volunteering at the food bank, Pearce spearheaded the formation of a community garden, which provided 37,000 pounds of produce over five years to those in need.

Since then, Pearce has helped those in need in Maricopa and around the state and has received awards for his service, including national recognition and a trip to Washington, D.C., for the Prudential Spirit of Community Award.

Through his role as chairman of the Maricopa Youth Council, Pearce recently implemented a program called Copa Care Boxes, which brings boxes of essential items to homeless people. He has also run half marathons to raise money for various causes, conducted bone marrow donor registration drives, assisted with Shop with a Cop and held recycled art contests during Earth Day.

“If you see how good volunteering makes you feel and see what it does for other people, you just think ‘OK, I have to keep doing that,’” Pearce says.

Throughout his years at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, Pearce maintained high grades, participated in choir and theater and volunteered regularly. He was recently accepted into 10 universities and received Presidential Scholarships to eight, but has chosen to attend Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University to study business entrepreneurship.

“When he chose ASU, he said ‘Mom, I have roots here and I still want to be involved with the community,” says Pearce’s mother Marlene Pearce. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back to Maricopa and does something someday.”

Pearce credits his mother with sparking his love for volunteering at a young age. One year after Marlene gave birth to Pearce, she learned she had breast cancer. Although she beat the disease, the experience prompted her to want to help others have a second chance, just like she did. Together, mother and son have run half marathons for a variety of causes and continue to inspire one another.

“I realized when I was young that if my mom is doing all of these busy things while raising me as a teenager and I have all this free time, then I could be doing things too,” Pearce says.

In fact, as rigorous as Pearce’s academics were, they didn’t take away from his volunteer time. Instead, they fueled it.

“You know you have to sit down and get your work done so you can do the things you want,” Pearce says. “My goals from middle school were that I wanted to be successful because I wanted to help people when I was older.”

This goal also led to Pearce’s selection of a major. With a degree in business entrepreneurship, Pearce says he hopes to gain the knowledge and skills required to either start his own nonprofit organization or business focused on social good or assist existing nonprofit organizations.

Mayor Christian Price wrote one of Pearce’s college recommendations and calls the young man “a go-getter.”

“He is going to go a long way and is a young man who knows what he wants in life and has just done so many great things,” Price says.

Lee Anne Clark, a volunteer with F.O.R. Maricopa, says she has known Pearce since he was just a young boy.

“I think Austen is a very special young man, and I have thought that since he was a young child serving coffee at the food bank and that hasn’t changed since he grew up,” Clark said. “He’ll go on and do great things.”

Marlene Pearce calls her son “compassionate and passionate” about the things he believes in.

“Ever since he has been small … from the time he was in maybe elementary school, I used to look at him and say to my mother, ‘The world is going to somehow be different because of him, but I don’t know how yet,’” Marlene Pearce says.

She adds with a laugh, “Then I would joke that I hope he doesn’t become a white-collar criminal, because of his ability to think and see things that not everybody sees.”

That sense of humor is a quality Pearce shares with his mom. He also has a talent for performing and takes dance classes and performs with Dance Studio 111 in Ahwatukee.

As Pearce gears up to start college, he says he will continue to volunteer wherever he can.

“I just feel like it’s so easy to help people, especially when it comes to providing them with food to eat or a proper place to live and basic necessities,” Pearce says. “Being in college, I won’t be able to go back through Maricopa as much as I have been, but there are many causes and clubs I can get involved in.”

Price says he is excited to see what the future holds for Pearce, and hopes he will return to the city someday.

“The city of Maricopa is certainly going to miss him when he is gone,” Price says, “but I hope he comes back and continues to do great things in Maricopa and the Phoenix metro area.”
PHOTOS BY WILLIAM LANGE